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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Intermediate

Web of Trust

Decentralized trust model where users vouch for one another's public keys instead of relying on a central CA.

Definition

Used by PGP and GnuPG, the web of trust has users sign each other's keys after verifying identity, often at key-signing parties. Trust is transitive based on how much a user trusts the signers. It scales poorly and is uncommon in enterprises compared with hierarchical PKI.

Example

Bob trusts Carol's key because Alice, whom Bob fully trusts, has signed it.

Exam tip

PGP uses a web of trust; X.509 uses a hierarchical CA model.

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