$Id: project-description.txt,v 1.1.1.1 2008/09/10 09:32:57 agcrooks Exp $

Project description - BSD Privacy Guard
=======================================

1. Introduction
---------------

BPG, the BSD Privacy Guard, is a BSD-licensed program that performs
authentication and encryption using the OpenPGP standard (RFC 2440).

The BPG project aims to produce:

    * A set of libraries for signing and encrypting data, allowing the
      integration of OpenPGP features in other applications.

    * A modular "PGP cryptography toolkit" that allow users to chose
      their own encryption and signing algorithms, key management
      structure, and so on.

    * A scriptable and well thought command-line interface built over
      the libraries. This standalone application will be a suitable
      replacement for GnuPG or PGP.

The emphasis on being a toolkit and providing PGP facilities to other
applications is what makes this project different from others.

Finally, the BPG project members would like to thank Google for
sponsoring this project under their first Summer of Code program, and
thank the NetBSD foundation for providing mentors for that.


2. Main uses
------------

The main uses BPG must support are:

* Data confidentiality: the library must support different algorithms
  for encryption of data. Concretely, it aims to be used for symmetric
  and asymmetric encryption.

* Data integrity and authentication: via digital signatures, BPG will
  support providing integrity and authentication to data, as defined
  in OpenPGP standard.

* Integrated key management: BPG aims to support centralized management
  of all of a user's public and private keys.

Examples of proposed uses can be found in the use cases document,
available from the BPG CVS repository:

    http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/netbsd-soc/bpg/doc/


3. Goals
--------

* Provide a complete implementation of the OpenPGP standard, with the
  only exception of possible old formats incompatibility if project
  needs demands it.
  
* Settle the basis of a well-thought and well-designed data security
  framework.

* Develop command-line interface that is both:
  
	a) powerful: it must support all the program functionality in
	an easily scriptable way;

	b) usable: confusing user interfaces reduce security by
	making it harder for a user to make correct decisions.

* Design the libraries for extensibility. We'd like BPG to be a good
  field for developing researchs in the state-of-the-art of
  authentication and cryptography.

* Make BPG a good candidate to replace GnuPG usage in BSD Unixes.


4. Licenses
-----------

All the code and documentation is released under the new BSD 3-clause
license, unless explicitly said in the given file:

Copyright (c) <YEAR> <AUTHORS>.  All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote
   products derived from this software without specific prior written
   permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY
DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


5. Authors
----------

This project is currently being developed by Manuel Freire
<droggo@gmail.com> with guidance from Alistair Crooks <agc@NetBSD.org>
and Curt Sampson <cjs@NetBSD.org>.
