Tagged Questions
4
votes
3answers
188 views
Is it okay to sign a PGP key without an IRL meeting?
[PGP] can get paralyzed by excessive analness.
— Phil Zimmermann
Preamble
I am in the process of building my own web of trust. That is, I want people (PGP users…) to be—fairly—sure that, by ...
3
votes
1answer
98 views
Recognizing PGP-encrypted disks
I am studying various disk encryption schemes (such as PGP, MS Bit Locker, BestCrypt and TrueCrypt) on my Windows OS.
I am interested to know how an encrypted partition/disk/file with a particular ...
3
votes
1answer
120 views
Why do PGP master keys only have a single subkey, and tie certification with signing by default?
After learning more about PGP subkeys and how to split apart the roles of (S)igning, (E)ncryption, (A)uthentication and (C)ertification, I discovered that in most cases(?) a default master key has a ...
4
votes
1answer
172 views
Potential issues with Kim Dotcom's new proposed “encrypted webmail service”
Just spotted a Reddit thread about Kim Dotcom, of MegaUpload fame, planning to produce a secure webmail system that allows people to communicate securely, without the worry of having their messages ...
3
votes
2answers
169 views
Is it reasonable to prevent timing attacks by using fixed processing time
I have systems that perform cryptographic operations within a SSL/TLS tunnel. My concern is that I may leak timing information when encrypting, decrypting, or hashing.
Part 1
Is it a good idea to ...
1
vote
0answers
107 views
OpenPGP CFB mode examples [closed]
Does anyone know where to get worked out examples of OpenPGP's CFB mode encryption? I know RFC 4880 explains it very precisely, but I managed to mess it up somehow.
I got one example from asking on ...
1
vote
1answer
140 views
PGP Secret Key Values calculation
I know this is somewhat counterintuitive, but: Does anyone know of any place where I might get intermediate values from PGP when it decrypts the secret values of the Secret Key packets and shows ...
0
votes
1answer
327 views
PGP encryption/signature with BouncyCastle [closed]
I've implemented PGP encryption and signature using BouncyCastle on Java. It works, but all the examples I'm based on have hardcoded the algorithms for symetric encryption, hashing and compression.
...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Is your PGP passphrase used to decrypt an encrypted private key, or needed in conjunction with the private key to decrypt the message?
If the former, then if the private key can be used to digitally sign messages, why doesn't your client offer to encrypt this highly sensitive piece of data?
If the latter, then if someone had access ...
0
votes
0answers
651 views
Where to find a compiled version of GPG.exe for Windows? [closed]
I've been looking through the GnuPG.org site, and many others to try and find a compiled version of GPG.exe for Windows.
I understand there is GPG4Win, however, I was looking for something a little ...
1
vote
2answers
135 views
OpenPGP: Sign-Verify workflow without Encrypt-Decrypt?
Is it a good and/or frequent practice to sign a file (with your own private key) without encrypting it (with the intended recipient's public key?) I haven't really been able to find a direct answer to ...
0
votes
1answer
366 views
Is Data Object on openPGP smartcard v2 encrypted?
currently I thinking about on-the-fly disk encryption using Truecrypt/dmcrypt LUKS with key stored on smartcard.
I would like to use openPGP v2 smart card, respectively GPF Cryptostick which is based ...
3
votes
3answers
988 views
Generate a PGP key with more than 4096 bits?
I would like to know if generating a PGP key with a number of bits higher than 4096 is possible and if so how?
16
votes
4answers
4k views
How does PGP differ from S/MIME?
Is S/MIME an abstracted system for general MIME type encryption, whereas PGP is more for email? Why would I want to choose one over the other, or can I use both at the same time?
11
votes
2answers
697 views
Flaw in encryption through pseudorandom number stream (from gpg documentation)
I was reading PGP docs and came upon a part written by Phil Zimmermann (PGP's creator) that piqued my curiosity:
When I was in college in the early 70s, I devised what I believed was a brilliant ...
3
votes
1answer
201 views
self-signatures using SHA1
This page says:
self-signatures must not use SHA1
You can check this by doing:
gpg --export-options export-minimal --export <keyid> | gpg --list-packets |grep -A 2 signature|grep ...
9
votes
5answers
1k views
Use RSA keypair for PGP encryption and decryption
Is there a way that I can use a RSA keypair with PGP?
What I mean is that I have 2048 length keypair and i want to use that to encrypt and decrypt data. But all I have found is that the PGP uses some ...
6
votes
3answers
636 views
Is the OpenPGP private key inherently password-protected?
I know I am required to enter a password every time I use my OpenPGP key. Is this done via software implementation or is it a property inherent to the protocol, and therefore the key?
Essentially, ...
9
votes
2answers
548 views
Does my PGP key really need to match the e-mail address for which I'll be using it?
In considering whether or not I want to join the big web o' trust and put my keys on a key server, I got to thinking about how it would affect my e-mail address' exposure. I generally try to keep my ...
8
votes
3answers
437 views
Most widespread use of PGP after 20 years
Phil Zimmerman released PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) on June 5, 1991. As we examine the legacy of that far-sighted and brave act 20 years later, what are the most widespread and helpful uses of PGP ...
10
votes
6answers
760 views
Shouldn't GPG key fetching use a secure connection?
If I run this for example:
gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 0xFBB75451
then does the importing occur in a secure way? I mean does it go over only secured connections? (HKP?) ...
3
votes
4answers
320 views
Generating OpenPGP key pair with restrictions
I intend to generate an OpenPGP RSA key pair where a part (~half) of the private key is as I specify, i.e. a specific string. Are there tools for generating a key pair with such restrictions, or will ...
11
votes
2answers
2k views
How does RSA encryption compare to PGP?
On this answer ck says
RSA and PGP are different.
What you are essentially asking is how
do I run my petrol car on diesel? The
answer is you can't.
I would be interested in a more ...
10
votes
2answers
974 views
GnuPG/OpenPGP Key Practices
I'm looking for input on GnuPG (gpg) best practices. It's been discussed some on the gnupg-users mailing list, but I wanted to get as diverse a view as possible, so I thought to bring the topic to ...
28
votes
6answers
8k views
How should I distribute my public key?
I've just started to use GPG and created a public key. It is kind of pointless if no-one knows about it. How should I distribute it? Should I post it on my profile on Facebook and LinkedIn? How about ...
