Gpg Generate Key In Batch Mode

Basics

  • Jun 28, 2019 gpg -full-generate-key. Running the above command will take you through several questions. Two of them will involve choosing userid and passphrase. Keep them safe. Export Public Key. Gpg -export -a userid public.key. Export Private Key. Gpg -pinentry-mode=loopback -batch -passphrase secret-export-secret-keys userid private.key.
  • When creating GPG key, the following message will be output and console will be hung. Not enough random bytes available. Please do some other work to give.
  • With –generate-key and –batch, enable the creation of RSA secret keys as large as 8192 bit. Note: 8192 bit is more than is generally recommended. These large keys don’t significantly improve security, but they are more expensive to use, and their signatures and certifications are larger.
  • Signing the keys noninteractively in batch mode. Signing the keys tells other people that we verified the identity of the key owners and trusting their keys, confirming that with a signature of our own key. Because we all were in a room together doing this I did verify their identity, thus vouching for their public keys.

I want to generate an ECC key where the primary key is just for cert and has 3 subkeys for auth, sign, encrypt. I've found 2 methods to generate it. But I want to use unattended key generation via. Gpg —-batch —generate-key Work method Interacitve mode. The command -generate-key may be used along with the option -batch for unattended key generation. This is the most flexible way of generating keys, but it is also the most complex one. Consider using the quick key manipulation interface described in the previous subsection “The quick key. Jun 28, 2019  Download GPG software from here or here. Encryption is generally done using public key so anyone can encrypt but decryption should only be done with private keys. Secret - this is the passphrase you chose when creating the public/private key pair. Userid - this is the user id you chose when creating the public/private key.

generate key in batch mode using a custom profile

gpg --gen-key --batch gpgspecs

create a file with your fingerprint info and display the related information. A fingerprint is used as a robust key identifier

gpg --fingerprint

Best practices

check you have at least a OpenPGPv4 key (v3 is not considered as robust)

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep version

check you have at least a DSA-2 or (preferably) RSA key with a length of 4K (or more).

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep -A2 '^:public key packet:$'| grep algo

check the output : RSA corresponds to algo 1, DSA to algo 17, ECDSA corresponds to algo 19, ECC to algo 18

in case you have RSA or DSA, check you have at least a key with a length of at least 4K (RSA) or at least 1K (DSA-2). ECDSA and ECC have different kind of keys

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep -A2 'public key'| grep 'pkey[0]:'

auto signatures should not use MD5. check that with the following command.

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep -A 2 signature| grep 'digest algo'

auto signatures should not use SHA-1. check that with the following command.

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep -A 2 signature| grep 'digest algo 2,'

If any of previous commands results contains 'digest algo 1' or 'digest algo 2', you should regenerate your key after adding cert-digest-algo SHA512 in ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf :

echo 'cert-digest-algo SHA512' >> ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf

you can regenerate an existing key, by simply updating the expiry date

check if your preferences for hashing algorithm include a member of SHA-2 family before SHA-1 and MD5.

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep 'pref-hash-algos'

if you see one of numbers '3', '2' ou '1' preceeding '11', '10', '9' or '8', you have weak preferences. Fix them

echo 'default-preference-list SHA512 SHA384 SHA256 SHA224 AES256 AES192 AES CAST5 ZLIB BZIP2 ZIP Uncompressed' >> ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf

then fix your key :

check you key expiry date, it should be max 2 years in the future from now

gpg --export-options export-minimal --export '<fingerprint>' | gpg --list-packets | grep 'key expires after'

or

gpg --list-keys '<fingerprint>'

you can fix that it it's not the case

List your keys

list your public keys, printing also fingerprint because default ids are too short and not secure

gpg --list-keys --with-fingerprint

list your private keys, with fingerprint since default ids are too short and not secure

gpg --list-secret-keys --with-fingerprint

avoid passing --with-fingerprint each time, by changing your default settings :

echo 'with-fingerprint' >> ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf

Key

Export your keys

export a public key

gpg -ao user@system-pgp-pub.key --export '<fingerprint>'

export a private key

gpg -ao user@system-pgp-prv.key --export-secret-keys '<fingerprint>'

Revocation and deletion

generate a revocation key (in case you forget your pass or your key is compromised)

gpg --output revoke.asc --gen-revoke '<fingerprint>'

Gpg Generate Key In Batch Models

delete private keys

gpg --delete-secret-keys '<fingerprint>'

delete public keys

gpg --delete-keys '<fingerprint>'

Import

check the fingerprint of a key before you import it

gpg --with-fingerprint <keyfile>

Import it (either it be private or public)gpg --import <path to key>

Encrypt files

create an archive of your secret files

decrypt file the archive

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Introduction

GPG, or GNU Privacy Guard, is a public key cryptography implementation. This allows for the secure transmission of information between parties and can be used to verify that the origin of a message is genuine.

In this guide, we will discuss how GPG works and how to implement it. We will be using an Ubuntu 16.04 server for this demonstration, but will include instructions for other distributions as well.

How Public Key Encryption Works

Gpg Generate Key In Batch Mode Windows 10

A problem that many users face is how to communicate securely and validate the identity of the party they are talking to. Many schemes that attempt to answer this question require, at least at some point, the transfer of a password or other identifying credentials, over an insecure medium.

Ensure That Only the Intended Party Can Read

To get around this issue, GPG relies on a security concept known as public key encryption. The idea is that you can split the encrypting and decrypting stages of the transmission into two separate pieces. That way, you can freely distribute the encrypting portion, as long as you secure the decrypting portion.

This would allow for a one-way message transfer that can be created and encrypted by anyone, but only be decrypted by the designated user (the one with the private decrypting key). If both of the parties create public/private key pairs and give each other their public encrypting keys, they can both encrypt messages to each other.

So in this scenario, each party has their own private key and the other user’s public key.

Validate the Identity of the Sender

Another benefit of this system is that the sender of a message can “sign” the message with their private key. The public key that the receiver has can be used to verify that the signature is actually being sent by the indicated user.

Gpg

Set Up GPG Keys

GPG is installed by default in most distributions.

If for any reason GPG is not installed, on Ubuntu and Debian, you can update the local repo index and install it by typing:

On CentOS, you can install GPG by typing:

To begin using GPG to encrypt your communications, you need to create a key pair. You can do this by issuing the following command:

This will take you through a few questions that will configure your keys:

  • Please select what kind of key you want: (1) RSA and RSA (default)
  • What keysize do you want? 4096
  • Key is valid for? 1y (expires after 1 year. If you are just testing, you may want to create a short-lived key the first time by using a number like “3” instead.)
  • Is this correct? y
  • Real name: your real name here
  • Email address: your_email@address.com
  • Comment: Optional comment that will be visible in your signature
  • Change (N)ame, ©omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
  • Enter passphrase: Enter a secure passphrase here (upper & lower case, digits, symbols)

At this point, gpg will generate the keys using entropy. Entropy describes the amount of unpredictability and nondeterminism that exists in a system. GPG needs this entropy to generate a secure set of keys.

This process may take a long time depending on how active your system is and the keysize you selected. To generate additional entropy more easily, you can use a tool called haveged. Open up a new terminal and SSH into the server again to set up haveged on your server.

Create a Revocation Certificate

You need to have a way of invalidating your key pair in case there is a security breach or in case you lose your secret key. There is an easy way of doing this with the GPG software.

This should be done as soon as you make the key pair, not when you need it. This revocation key must be generated ahead of time and kept in a secure, separate location in case your computer is compromised or inoperable. To generate a revocation key, type:

You will be asked to confirm the revocation key creation and then prompted for the reason that it is being revoked. This information will be visible to other users if the revocation is used in the future. You can choose any of the available options, but since this is being done ahead of time, you won’t have the specifics. Often, it is a good idea to create a revocation certificate for each of the likely scenarios for maximum flexibility.

Afterwards, you will then be asked to supply a comment and finally, to confirm the selections. Before creating the revocation certificate, you will need to enter your GPG key’s passphrase to confirm your identity. The revocation certificate will be written to the file specified by the --output flag (revocation.crt in our example):

You should immediately restrict the permissions on the generated certificate file in order to prevent unauthorized access:

The revocation certificate must be kept secure so that other users cannot revoke your key. As the message states, you should consider backing the certificate up to other machines and printing it out, as long as you can secure it properly.

How To Import Other Users’ Public Keys

GPG would be pretty useless if you could not accept other public keys from people you wished to communicate with.

You can import someone’s public key in a variety of ways. If you’ve obtained a public key from someone in a text file, GPG can import it with the following command:

There is also the possibility that the person you are wishing to communicate with has uploaded their key to a public key server. These key servers are used to house people’s public keys from all over the world.

A popular key server that syncs its information with a variety of other servers is the MIT public key server. You can search for people by their name or email address by going here in your web browser:

You can also search the key server from within GPG by typing the following:

You can use this method of searching by name or email address. You can import keys that you find by following the prompts.

How To Verify and Sign Keys

While you can freely distribute your generated public key file and people can use this to contact you in a secure way, it is important to be able to trust that the key belongs to who you think it does during the initial public key transmission.

Verify the Other Person’s Identity

How do you know that the person giving you the public key is who they say they are? In some cases, this may be simple. You may be sitting right next to the person with your laptops both open and exchanging keys. This should be a pretty secure way of identifying that you are receiving the correct, legitimate key.

But there are many other circumstances where such personal contact is not possible. You may not know the other party personally, or you may be separated by physical distance. If you never want to communicate over insecure channels, verification of the public key could be problematic.

Luckily, instead of verifying the entire public keys of both parties, you can simply compare the “fingerprint” derived from these keys. This will give you a reasonable assurance that you both are using the same public key information.

You can get the fingerprint of a public key by typing:

This will produce a much more manageable string of numbers to compare. You can compare this string with the person themselves, or with someone else who has access to that person.

Sign Their Key

Signing a key tells your software that you trust the key that you have been provided with and that you have verified that it is associated with the person in question.

To sign a key that you’ve imported, simply type:

Gpg Generate Key

When you sign the key, it means you verify that you trust the person is who they claim to be. This can help other people decide whether to trust that person too. If someone trusts you, and they see that you’ve signed this person’s key, they may be more likely to trust their identity too.

You should allow the person whose key you are signing to take advantage of your trusted relationship by sending them back the signed key. You can do this by typing:

You’ll have to type in your passphrase again. Afterwards, their public key, signed by you, will be displayed. Send them this, so that they can benefit from gaining your “stamp of approval” when interacting with others.

When they receive this new, signed key, they can import it, adding the signing information you’ve generated into their GPG database. They can do this by typing:

They can now demonstrate to other people that you trust that their identity is correct.

How To Make Your Public Key Highly Available

Because of the way that public key encryption is designed, there is not anything malicious that can happen if unknown people have your public key.

With this in mind, it may be beneficial to make your public key publicly available. People can then find your information to send you messages securely from your very first interaction.

You can send anyone your public key by requesting it from the GPG system:

Batch

You can then send this file to the other party over an appropriate medium.

If you want to publish your key to a key server, you can do it manually through the forms available on most of the server sites.

Another option is to do this through the GPG interface. Look up your key ID by typing:

The highlighted portion in the output below is the key ID (look for the pub along the left-hand column if you’re uncertain about which one to use). It is a short way to reference the key to the internal software.

To upload your key to a certain key server, you can then use this syntax:

The key will be uploaded to the specified server. Afterwards, it will likely be distributed to other key servers around the world.

Encrypt and Decrypt Messages with GPG

You can easily encrypt and decrypt messages after you have shared your keys with the other party.

Encrypt Messages

You can encrypt messages using the “–encrypt” flag for GPG. The basic syntax would be:

This encrypts the message using the recipient’s public key, signs it with your own private key to guarantee that it is coming from you, and outputs the message in a text format instead of raw bytes. The filename will be the same as the input filename, but with an .asc extension.

You should include a second “-r” recipient with your own email address if you want to be able to read the encrypted message. This is because the message will be encrypted with each person’s public key, and will only be able to be decrypted with the associated private key.

So if it was only encrypted with the other party’s public key, you would not be able to view the message again, unless you somehow obtained their private key. Adding yourself as a second recipient encrypts the message two separate times, one for each recipient.

Decrypt Messages

When you receive a message, simply call GPG on the message file:

The software will prompt you as necessary.

If instead of a file, you have the message as a raw text stream, you can copy and paste it after typing gpg without any arguments. You can press “CTRL-D” to signify the end of the message and GPG will decrypt it for you.

Key Maintenance

There are a number of procedures that you may need to use on a regular basis to manage your key database.

Gpg Generate Key In Batch Mode 1

To list your available GPG keys that you have from other people, you can issue this command:

Your key information can become outdated if you are relying on information pulled from public key servers. You do not want to be relying on revoked keys, because that would mean you are trusting potentially compromised keys.

Gpg Generate Key In Batch Mode Software

You can update the key information by issuing:

This will fetch new information from the key servers.

You can pull information from a specific key server by using:

You may receive error messages if any of your keys cannot be found on the key server.

Conclusion

Using GPG correctly can help you secure your communications with different people. This is extremely helpful, especially when dealing with sensitive information, but also when dealing with regular, everyday messaging.

Because of the way that certain encrypted communications can be flagged by monitoring programs, it is recommended to use encryption for everything, not just “secret” data. That will make it more difficult for people to know when you are sending important data or just sending a friendly hello.