Mar 06

Getting upto speed with GPG

For all of you conspiracy theorist and Security Freaks out there. This is what I found out today.
They are out to get you!!! So be prepared!!!!
One way to do so is to start using GPG which is an open source implementation of PGP which started off this craze of Security and Public Key Encription. This is what I found out on my journey.

GPG is slightly more difficult that PGP because it only offers a CLI (Command Line Interface) it means that in order to do something you will have to type a command at the prompt.


However there are some tools that help you convert GPG from a command line interface to a Cool GUI tool. To do that you will have to install GPGee. It stands for GPG Explorer Extension. And if features as a context menu with the right click on any explorer window.

A new GUI can be got from GPG4Win As of this modification it is
GPG4Win is Version 2.0.3 and includes:

  • GnuPG 2.0.14
  • Kleopatra 2.0.14-svn1098530 (20100303)
  • GPA 0.9.0
  • GpgOL 1.1.1
  • GpgEX 0.9.5
  • Claws Mail 3.7.4cvs1
  • Gpg4win Compendium (German!) 3.0.0
  • Gpg4win for Novices 1.0.0

In order to get started with GPG you will have to do one Basic Thing.
That is generate a Key. It can be done with this command.

gpg –gen-key

This will basically ask you a lot of questions and finally generate a key. You may be wondering where the generated key is? Well it is all stored in a file called pubring.gpg/secring.gpg in “C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\gnupg”
The other things that you will need to know are:

  • Exporting a Public Key
  • Importing a Public Key
  • Making and verifying Signatures
  • Encrypting and Decrypting Documents

All these are explained in the first section of the Document which is available at the GPG Site

Another thing to note is that you will need to configure GPGee to make it work. The files needed are
the gpg.exe ie the Gpg Executable.
The Public Keyring which is pubring.gpg which I mentioned earlier
The Secret Keyring which is secring.gpg in the same directory as pubring.pgp.

All the rest works like a charm.

Ps. This blog is just to remind myself how I did things(pieces that were missed out in the doucmentation) and not basically a tutorial for others. If you need more information from me just post a comment and I could clarify.
BTW this should get me started on Open SSL because that is what got me here in the first place.

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