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GnuPG Notes.md

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Generating a Key

Simple. Issue this:

gpg --gen-key

Here's a transcript of what happens next. It's all nice and interactive :)

gpg (GnuPG) 1.4.5; Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it  
under certain conditions. See the file COPYING for details.  
  
Please select what kind of key you want:  
(1) DSA and Elgamal (default)  
(2) DSA (sign only)  
(5) RSA (sign only)  
Your selection? 5  
RSA keys may be between 1024 and 4096 bits long.  
What keysize do you want? (2048)   
Requested keysize is 2048 bits  
Please specify how long the key should be valid.  
0 = key does not expire  
<n>  = key expires in n days  
<n>w = key expires in n weeks  
<n>m = key expires in n months  
<n>y = key expires in n years  
Key is valid for? (0) 1y  
Key expires at Tue 20 Dec 2011 10:52:20 AM CST  
Is this correct? (y/N) y  
  
You need a user ID to identify your key; the software constructs the user ID  
from the Real Name, Comment and Email Address in this form:  
"Heinrich Heine (Der Dichter) <[email protected]>"  
  
Real name: Nikhil Anand  
Email address: [email protected]  
Comment:   
You selected this USER-ID:  
"Nikhil Anand <[email protected]>"  
  
Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O  
You need a Passphrase to protect your secret key.  
  
We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform  
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the  
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number  
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.  
...+++++  
.+++++  
gpg: key C236FD2B marked as ultimately trusted  
public and secret key created and signed.  
  
gpg: checking the trustdb  
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model  
gpg: depth: 0  valid:   1  signed:   0  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 1u  
gpg: next trustdb check due at 2011-12-20  
pub   2048R/C236FD2B 2010-12-20 [expires: 2011-12-20]  
Key fingerprint = 8E05 7113 DF16 CB7A E7A5  0422 A8E4 0177 C236 FD2B  
uid                  Nikhil Anand <[email protected]>  
  
Note that this key cannot be used for encryption.  You may want to use  
the command "--edit-key" to generate a subkey for this purpose.

Key Rings

Keys are stored in files called "key rings".

  • The secring.gpg file is the key ring that stores secret keys.
  • The pubring.gpg file is the key ring that stores public keys.

They're most likely stored in the .gnupg folder in your home directory.

Viewing Keys

Viewing Public Keys

Here's the naive approach:

[user@machine ~]# gpg --list-keys  
/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg  
------------------------  
pub   1024D/F24F1B08 2002-04-23 [expired: 2004-04-22]  
uid                  Red Hat, Inc (Red Hat Network) <[email protected]>  
  
pub   2048R/C236FD2B 2010-12-20 [expires: 2011-12-20]  
uid                  Nikhil Anand <[email protected]>

There's nothing paranoid about checking public key fingerprints if the issuer has provided them. For this, use the --fingerprint flag:

[user@machine ~]# gpg --fingerprint  
/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg  
------------------------  
pub   1024D/F24F1B08 2002-04-23 [expired: 2004-04-22]  
Key fingerprint = D8CC 06C2 77EC 9C53 372F  C199 B1EE 1799 F24F 1B08  
uid                  Red Hat, Inc (Red Hat Network) <[email protected]>  
  
pub   2048R/C236FD2B 2010-12-20 [expires: 2011-12-20]  
Key fingerprint = 8E05 7113 DF16 CB7A E7A5  0422 A8E4 0177 C236 FD2B  
uid                  Nikhil Anand <[email protected]>

Viewing Private Keys

[user@machine ~]# gpg --list-secret-keys  
/root/.gnupg/secring.gpg  
------------------------  
sec   2048R/C236FD2B 2010-12-20 [expires: 2011-12-20]  
uid                  Nikhil Anand <[email protected]>

Sharing Your Key(s)

You share your public keys by exporting them to a human-readable ASCII file. Let's use the public keyring from the previous section.

[user@machine ~]# gpg -a --export "Nikhil Anand" > Nikhil_Anand.gpg

This produces a file which looks like this:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----  
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)  
  
mQENBE0PieMBCACoEUNmHGj8TQ+Kq69PrDEN20D0p83ReN+njEUTUbFmnHvtN7Mh  
wVytH+pncl1F8Ji5ZbD0iHq/m8ki51QAKVPSLbk1AQ7CpGp7jUWdKlrpzSdJCea6  
DL4gy7feARavZSFGhoHoMuLP+gil0w2jMqzLq42DJ5qbGqMIwsZzBQoMf0dDsnf2  
6Llc1HADIpz1gAe6fScmqIHmV2Q3JwtjtkK/gP0roJm8aJaYRWUawdFu/4SipjjM  
trBTkBwS2IJ+T0QUUiKWVR7gH33qd164gERjq5GVyfvchps1e9EVxEB++zHnX41j  
/klLKLh0Q+X0lGq1211tUFcvcRhlNgiB1/iBABEBAAG0JU5pa2hpbCBBbmFuZCA8  
YW5hbmQubmlraGlsQGdtYWlsLmNvbT6JATwEEwECACYFAk0PieMCGwMFCQHhM4AG  
CwkIBwMCBBUCCAMEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRCo5AF3wjb9K7plB/9Z3ZBG5UzcTaU0  
IycHMhN0tMHYEnl5qZYv2Vp4HDOR+xiooULvw13eUggp7e/QQiwNpxroDw+YYG1n  
b7CpSqYnZlMhwuTgab2ec/tFa12pEY+e7fCPFV8RJOKe2h18stuNvbbHzdC22wFz  
CxTavVVAKt+mNtbfNzI6OkPywGEdRB7ZSkOwq09FZbtLN0/HMtww53Du9nmX3T6r  
EiyONJfVz34SC3jXkrIk7rdAbTueBqmAOoWqT7o6ZXioCMGXEHPxvTs0fnZ77dnn  
V65qtZoAO74aUczvQtUIbFWB67T/ooZS4gYLovHn0NlU3qaE0g3avjZJN/mb7dGw  
nFRQ1H9f  
=VY6t  
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Never, ever, ever share your private key!

Importing Keys

Other Public Keys

Simple. Let's say I wanted to import my friend Scott's public key which he's uploaded/emailed to me.

[user@machine ~]# gpg --import Scott.gpg  
[user@machine ~]# gpg --fingerprint  
/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg  
------------------------  
pub   1024D/F24F1B08 2002-04-23 [expired: 2004-04-22]  
      Key fingerprint = D8CC 06C2 77EC 9C53 372F  C199 B1EE 1799 F24F 1B08  
uid                  Red Hat, Inc (Red Hat Network) <[email protected]>

pub   2048R/C236FD2B 2010-12-20 [expires: 2011-12-20]  
      Key fingerprint = 8E05 7113 DF16 CB7A E7A5  0422 A8E4 0177 C236 FD2B  
uid                  Nikhil Anand <[email protected]>

pub   1024D/910620BF 2010-05-12  
      Key fingerprint = B3B6 A608 6012 F724 52C3  03F4 D085 AAC6 9106 20BF  
uid                  Scott <[email protected]>  
sub   4096g/29673670 2010-05-12

Make sure you verify the fingerprint! In this case, Scott emailed me what to expect.

Other Private Keys

[user@machine ~]# gpg --allow-secret-key-import --import private.key

You may want to do this to import your private key on systems other than your own. This allows you to use your public/private keypair across many other systems. However, this is not ideal at all; you can see why NFS mounting homedirs is a good idea :)

Encrypting and Decrypting Data

Encryption

Let's say I (Nikhil Anand) wanted to send something to my friend Scott, whose key I imported in the previous section.

[user@machine ~]# gpg --encrypt --local-user "Nikhil Anand" --recipient "Scott" <filename>

When you're more of a Yoda with GPG, you can significantly shorten the longopts version above with something more terse:

[user@machine ~]# gpg -e -u "Nikhil Anand" -r "Scott" <filename>

Decryption

Let's say Scott and I have exchanged our public keys. He's now sent me a super-secret message (encrypted with my public key) I want to decrypt (with my private key):

[user@machine ~]# gpg --decrypt <filename>