Bug
Specifying a --min-cert-level should trigger --check-trustdb
Background
- Users can specify options on the command line that override
defaults within gpg or in the options file. They expect that these
temporary options will not have a lingering effect on gpg.
- gpg's documentation states a the default --min-cert-level.
- For many operations (editing keys, encrypting and others)
specifying --min-cert-level does not seem to trigger
--check-trustdb.
- Certification levels are (presumably) useful to help the user
adopt slightly different security levels for different information.
In other words, a user might decide that for some purposes to accept
--min-cert-level=1 and for other purposes --min-cert-level=3. In
other words, users who are using this feature at all are likely to
want to switch cert levels.
- At the moment, running --min-cert-level=1 --check-trust-db leaves
gpg displaying incorrect trust information once the option is no longer being
specified, until or unless some other event triggers an update. This surely
presents a security issue for those relying on
gpg's trust model.
- At the moment, specifying --min-cert-level on the command line
has little/no effect unless the user remembers to manually update the
trustdb.
(gpg version used to verify problem: 1.4.11)