How to generate GPG key?

by | Feb 24, 2017 | Data Security, Encryption, PGP and GPG, Privacy

How to generate GPG key

In the previous article, we discussed how to install GPG. After the installation of GPG, the very next step is to generate a private-public key pair. GPG can be used as a command-line tool. One can generate a keypair using various command-line options and do encryption, decryption, and signing. In this article, we will discuss how to generate a GPG key pair.

How to generate a GPG key?

To generate a new public-private key pair in GPG, run the following command :

# gpg --gen-key


This will ask you a couple of questions.

1. Select what kind of key you want. Here, you can select DSA or RSA. For example, selecting RSA will generate an RSA key pair that will enable you to both sign and encrypt using RSA keys, and selecting DSA will generate a DSA keypair.

2. Select the size of the key. The bigger the size of the key, the more secure the encryption, and the more time is taken for encryption and decryption. So, one can select the size as per his/her requirement. But I would say selecting 4096 bits is good enough.

3. Specify how long the key should be valid. Press ‘0’ if you do not want the key pair to expire. Otherwise, you can specify the days, weeks, months, and years.

4. Give your user ID to identify the key. You can give your user ID in the format: “Heinrich Heine (Der Dichter) <[email protected]>”

5. Give your real name.

6. Here comes the most important part. Give your passphrase. You should select a passphrase that is known only to you and a difficult and unique one. This passphrase is the only thing to protect your private key. Ideally, you should not use a dictionary word as a passphrase.

7. Congrats! You have generated your key pair.

Please note that GPG generates random numbers while generating a key pair. And this needs entropy. So, making the system busy while creating a keypair can help. You will get more information on what entropy is in cryptography and how entropy improves security in this article: What is entropy in cryptography?

A busy system gives the random number generator enough entropy to create a random number. So, if your GPG key generation is very slow, try to keep the system busy. That would help. (Why is GPG hanging when generating a key?)

How to create a Revocation Certificate for a GPG key?

The next important step is to generate a revocation certificate. Once you generate a key pair, you should …

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Amrita Mitra

Author

Ms. Amrita Mitra is an author, who has authored the books “Cryptography And Public Key Infrastructure“, “Web Application Vulnerabilities And Prevention“, “A Guide To Cyber Security” and “Phishing: Detection, Analysis And Prevention“. She is also the founder of Asigosec Technologies, the company that owns The Security Buddy.

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