> A frightening number of keys used to sign software are not signed by anyone, so they're effectively the equivalent of a self signed certificate. I wonder how

> A frightening number of keys used to sign software are not signed by anyone, so they're effectively the equivalent of a self signed certificate. I wonder how hard would it be to socially engineer yourself into trust chain. I haven't read GPG manuals, but I'd be surprised if there were strict protocols followed by everyone when signing others' keys. Most people probably don't or can't insure that there is no mitm when signing keys and can't reliably verify that government id papers aren't forgeries so likely reliable chains of trusts exists only between people that spend large quantities of time together and exchange fingerprints over secure channel.