dead beef attack

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

dead beef attack
 n.

   [cypherpunks list, 1996] An attack on a public-key cryptosystem
   consisting of publishing a key having the same ID as another key (thus
   making it possible to spoof a user's identity if recipients aren't
   careful about verifying keys). In PGP and GPG the key ID is the last
   eight hex digits of (for RSA keys) the product of two primes. The
   attack was demonstrated by creating a key whose ID was 0xdeadbeef (see
   {DEADBEEF}).