What can I share in PGP

[bitcoinermatt]

I have trouble understanding PGP. I have Kleopatra installed and I have a certified keypair or something like that. I see people sharing PGP fingerprints, uploading them to servers, pgp blocks, I want to share this too. but what can I share?

I have made a list below with the things that I have:

• blablaPUBLIC.asc
• blablaSECRET.asc
• My fingerprint

What are the things I can share? And what is which one used for?

Thanks!

[Charles-Tim]

There is a post on this forum that explained more about PGP Signature,  created by mdayonliner. Try to understand it and be able to start to know how you can encrypt a message.

[Eng: Tutorial] PGP Signature - Encrypt/Decrypt message - Fingerprint
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4059348.0

[BlackHatCoiner]

I have trouble understanding PGP.

PGP is complicated to understand. I can agree with you, it took me some days to understand it. Let's leave kleopatra out for a moment, since it's just a software that performs the PGP algorithms.

I see people sharing PGP fingerprints, uploading them to servers, pgp blocks, I want to share this too. but what can I share?

You can share with us your public key with a digital signature. That giant blablaPUBLIC.asc along with a text that proves mathematically that you own the public key without having to reveal your secret key. Same thing that happens in bitcoin too but with different encryption. (I think that kleopatra uses AES encryption)

What are the things I can share? And what is which one used for?

You can share everything except your secret key. If someone has it, he can prove that he is you. Fingerprint is nothing but the public key written on a smaller format so it can be easier to transfer. Note that you can't go from fingerprint to public key, but only the opposite. To cut a long story short, a fingerprint is a hashed public key (with SHA-1 or SHA-2).

Consider taking a look on Booknemonic. I recently announced it and the purpose of it is getting rid of the enormous public keys.

[PawGo]

I have trouble understanding PGP. I have Kleopatra installed and I have a certified keypair or something like that. I see people sharing PGP fingerprints, uploading them to servers, pgp blocks, I want to share this too. but what can I share?

I have made a list below with the things that I have:

• blablaPUBLIC.asc
• blablaSECRET.asc
• My fingerprint

What are the things I can share? And what is which one used for?

Thanks!

Public key. Only. you may also publish fingerprint, but it is useless without access to public key.
So, in few words:
You have two parts, public and private. Public is.... public. In fact you should upload it to any PGP server for other users to be able to find it. Private is yours. If someone gets your private key, you should revoke it.
4 operations are possible:
- you sign message to someone -> you use your private key to sign something (text, file)... Private key will generate signature. Other side must have your public key (you may give it or person may find your key somewhere, on the PGP server, using your email or name or fingerprint etc.). If public key corresponds to the private key used by you - signature will be approved.
- you may encrypt message to someone -> you need someone's public key. They you encrypt message and other person may decrypt it ONLY if have private key corresponding to public key you used. So, in fact even you cannot decrypt message you encrypted... but usually programs make is possible because they also prepare it using your's public key (it is possible to have more than one recipient).
- you may verify signature - if you receive signed content, you may verify the authenticity using someone's public key. This part is interesting, because it is the way how you may verify if program (executable) or some other content is not modified. For example - author of Electrum wallet signs application and tells which key you should find/get to verify if the file comes really from him.
- you may decrypt content prepared for you - if someone encrypted text/file using your public key, you need private key to decrypt it.

As you see, operations are symmetrical and it is easy to understand if you think about it a little and remember that public part is available for everyone and private should be kept on your side.

Regards,

[AB de Royse777]

• blablaPUBLIC.asc
• blablaSECRET.asc
• My fingerprint

What are the things I can share? And what is which one used for?

You only share public key and fingerprint, never share secret key aka private key. Without public-key/fingerprint (uploaded in a server) no one can verify a message or file if you want them to have the original message or file that you have for them.


For any recognize open-source software the dev team always provides the signature. Verifying the file against this signature means that you have the authentic piece of software. This helps you to avoid fake, phishing copies.


Let me give you an example: Electrum wallet.

You can have copies of Electrum client anywhere on the web including their official website (https://electrum.org/#download). How would you know that the copies that were downloaded from other websites are authentic, even the copies in their official site (the server may get hacked)? You only way to verify if the copy is genuine is the signature they provide.



And these signatures are signed by ThomasV and his PGP public key is: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spesmilo/electrum/master/pubkeys/ThomasV.asc

Code:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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=sUYl
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

This key is recognized by the community.

So when you download the copy of Electrum from anywhere in the world, your first job is to verify the file you just downloaded against this PGP public key of ThomasV.

For that you need:
1. Import the public key of ThomasV and certify it with your private key.
2. Download the signature of the version of the downloaded Electrum software.
3. Verify the downloaded software.

If it verifies then you have the original copy and you can now install it without any hesitation.

I hope I made it easy to understand the use case of PGP encryption.

~snip~

I normally send 5 merits for a good post but you deserve 2x than my normal from me.

@bitcoinermatt, so far the best you got from PawGo. I only explain one use case of PGP.

[bitcoinermatt]

• blablaPUBLIC.asc
• blablaSECRET.asc
• My fingerprint

What are the things I can share? And what is which one used for?

You only share public key and fingerprint, never share secret key aka private key. Without public-key/fingerprint (uploaded in a server) no one can verify a message of file if you want them to have the original message or file that you have for them.


For any recognize open-source software the dev team always provides the signature. Verifying the file against this signature means that you have the authentic piece of software. This helps you to avoid fake, phishing copies.


Let me give you an example: Electrum wallet.

You can have copies of Electrum client anywhere on the web including their official website (https://electrum.org/#download). How would you know that the copies that were downloaded from other websites are authentic, even the copies in their official site (the server may get hacked)? You only way to verify if the copy is genuine is the signature they provide.



And these signatures are signed by ThomasV and his PGP public key is: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spesmilo/electrum/master/pubkeys/ThomasV.asc

Code:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

mQINBE34z9wBEACT31iv9i8Jx/6MhywWmytSGWojS7aJwGiH/wlHQcjeleGnW8HF
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yIaXtxtxacJJW3K07fqKIkJjISPOyTLSd+wl1LtRE2fA67pMmpMHG8t+RPq1dp/e
3qp6L7jc6X3U+bn2m7u2cgEVbuAnSaKGoMSMnsd71Ltf1b6/DwvZz/HBttEgcgSm
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j1p8vFlnHvhRg82MDfGUPJ+ujBjbYXROs+WAmaCQ8TgjZ3dAFNFrOqAbYu6QlY2x
fu7vj+ruc6ArdmBrOlsJFmNsxFRJfgdUug5JFIUN77GbjisHjWem8cY3szuyEke8
H2pi803CAuVtkaoNmNDHsEBieft34Zo0V+A/q2wkix3S9vyRjOKqhGrW30qxnV6Z
FexueWuO3qOQ0ZU5/TIH0kft2n45/RexeBq/Ip52zE1vEvTkQmBCfCGZmqTu+9Ro
8qsjecxVNxyVPlwhlimryiQ+dPaJYaOSfiwEEMh2MyV5c6t6qN9n6jFdiCLOlmmH
ZFA8xDodsofQEmlv+I/xyEZ7na6nxbpZVuPC3B0JFtY=
=sUYl
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

This key is recognized by the community.

So when you download the copy of Electrum from anywhere in the world, your first job is to verify the file you just downloaded against this PGP public key of ThomasV.

For that you need:
1. Import the public key of ThomasV and certify it with your private key.
2. Download the signature of the version of the downloaded Electrum software.
3. Verify the downloaded software.

If it verifies then you have the original copy and you can now install it without any hesitation.

I hope I made it easy to understand the use case of PGP encryption.

~snip~

I normally send 5 merits for a good post but you deserve 2x than my normal from me.

@bitcoinermatt, so far the best you got from PawGo. I only explain one use case of PGP.

Thanks a lot for the information! I think I understand now! I'm closing the topic.