Chapter 2 of 6 / is this the real one
The signed statement is months old
Right key, valid signature, unaltered text, and the announcement was true in March. Everything checked out and you still do not have the answer you were looking for.
Why this works
A signature has no expiry. It says this text came from this key, and that stays true forever, because the format was never trying to answer whether the statement is still current.
So a completely genuine old announcement can be lifted whole and put on a page today. Nothing has been forged, nothing fails, and the only wrong part is the framing around it. The framing is not signed.
Careful is not the same as finished
This is the one page in the chapter that catches careful readers specifically. Somebody who never verifies is not fooled by a replayed signature. Somebody who verifies and stops at the word good is exactly who it is for.
Where the date lives
| Where | What it is worth |
|---|---|
| Inside the signed text | The one that counts, because the signature covers it |
| In the verification output | Also covered. Fine to use |
| On the page around the block | Nothing. Not signed, so it can say anything |
| A last updated line on the site | Nothing, for the same reason |
What counts as recent
There is no fixed number and anybody giving you one is inventing it. As a rule of thumb, a set published in the last few weeks is ordinary, one from several months ago wants a second source before you rely on it, and one from a year ago is a historical document. Check the obvious thing too, which is whether the addresses inside it appear anywhere current at all.
The one minute cross check
- Take one address out of the signed set.
- See whether it appears in any current list from an unrelated place.
- If a months old set turns up nowhere else today, you are reading history. That is useful to know and it is not a reason to panic.
Where you will actually meet this
- On a directory that stopped being maintained. The most common by far, and nobody involved intended anything.
- On a copy of a real page, kept intact because the signed block makes it more convincing rather than less.
- In an archived copy that a search engine still has and still ranks.
- In a forum post that was accurate when written and has been quoted forward ever since.
Notice that only one of those four involves anybody acting badly. Most replayed signatures are simply old pages that nobody took down, which is why treating this as an attack rather than as decay leads people to the wrong response.