gpg version: 2.2.16 (as part of Gpg4win 3.1.9).
Is this supposed to happen: Every export of my private key partially differs from every other export as follows: 2 middle chunks of the main block, and the last 4 characters before the footer. So it looks like this:
-----BEGIN PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
< blank line >
< identical chunk of characters >
< non-identical chunk 1 >
< identical chunk >
< non-identical chunk 2 >
< identical chunk >
< non-identical chunk 3 (last 4 chars) >
-----END PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
A --list-packets on any two exports shows a difference in two lines:
iter+salt S2K, algo: 7, SHA1 protection, hash: 2, salt: < variable hex string >
protect IV: < variable hex string >
If the above is normal, then why is that - why is each export different? And what are you backing up when you export your private key for safe keeping? If it's abnormal, then what causes it, and what steps can I take to address it?
I couldn't find anything in RFC 4880 about the "protect IV" line.
Note: My question has some similarities to this one, and this one.