<p><ahref="https://gnupg.org/">Gnu Privacy Guard</a> (GnuPG) is an Open Source implementation of the <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy#OpenPGP">Pretty Good
Privacy</a> (OpenPGP) specification. Its main purposes are digital authentication,
signature and encryption.</p>
<p>It is often used by the <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software">FLOSS</a> community to verify:
- Linux package signatures: Debian <ahref="https://wiki.debian.org/SecureApt">SecureApt</a>, ArchLinux <ahref="https://www.archlinux.org/master-keys/">Master
Keys</a>
- <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control">SCM</a> releases & maintainer identity</p>
<h3id="trust">Trust</h3>
<p>To quote Phil Pennock (the author of the <ahref="https://bitbucket.org/skskeyserver/sks-keyserver/wiki/Home">SKS</a> key server - http://sks.spodhuis.org/):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You MUST understand that presence of data in the keyserver (pools) in no way connotes trust. Anyone can generate a key, with any name or email address, and upload it. All security and trust comes from evaluating security at the “object level”, via PGP Web-Of-Trust signatures. This keyserver makes it possible to retrieve keys, looking them up via various indices, but the collection of keys in this public pool is KNOWN to contain malicious and fraudulent keys. It is the common expectation of server operators that users understand this and use software which, like all known common OpenPGP implementations, evaluates trust accordingly. This expectation is so common that it is not normally explicitly stated.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Trust can be gained by having your key signed by other people (and signing their key back, too :) ), for instance during <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signing_party">key signing parties</a>, see:
- <ahref="http://www.cryptnet.net/fdp/crypto/keysigning_party/en/keysigning_party.html">The Keysigning party HOWTO</a>
- <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust">Web of trust</a></p>
<h2id="generate-a-gpg-key">Generate a GPG key</h2>
<ul>
<li><ahref="http://stackoverflow.com/a/16725717">Generating a GPG key for Git tagging</a> (StackOverflow)</li>
<li><ahref="https://help.github.com/articles/generating-a-gpg-key/">Generating a GPG key</a> (GitHub)</li>
</ul>
<h3id="gpg-provide-identity-information">gpg - provide identity information</h3>
<pre><codeclass="bash">$ gpg --gen-key
gpg (GnuPG) 2.1.6; Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Note: Use "gpg2 --full-gen-key" for a full featured key generation dialog.
GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.
Real name: Marvin the Paranoid Android
Email address: marvin@h2g2.net
You selected this USER-ID:
"Marvin the Paranoid Android <marvin@h2g2.net>"
Change (N)ame, (E)mail, or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o
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
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