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diff --git a/doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt b/doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef8b233 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,873 @@ + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + GNUPG - WHAT’S NEW IN 2.1 + + + Werner Koch + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + + 2017-08-28 + + +Table of Contents +───────────────── + +1 What’s new in GnuPG 2.1 +.. 1.1 Removal of the secret keyring +.. 1.2 Removal of PGP-2 support +.. 1.3 Leaner key generation interface +.. 1.4 Support for ECC +.. 1.5 Quick generate and sign commands +.. 1.6 Improved Pinentry support +.. 1.7 Auto-start of the gpg-agent +.. 1.8 Duplicate long key id fixes +.. 1.9 Enhanced Dirmngr +.. 1.10 Better keyserver pool support +.. 1.11 Faster keyring format +.. 1.12 Auto-generated revocation certificates +.. 1.13 Improved card support +.. 1.14 New format for key listings +.. 1.15 Recipient key from file +.. 1.16 Using gpg as a filter +.. 1.17 Support for Putty +.. 1.18 Export of SSH public keys +.. 1.19 Improved X.509 certificate creation +.. 1.20 Scripts to create a Windows installer + + +A possibly revised version of this article can be found at: +https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html + + +1 What’s new in GnuPG 2.1 +═════════════════════════ + + GnuPG version 2.1 (now known as 2.2) comes with a bag of new features + which changes some things old-timers are used to. This page explains + the more important ones. It expects that the reader is familiar with + GnuPG version 2.0 and aware that GnuPG consists of /gpg/, /gpgsm/, and + /gpg-agent/ as its main components. + + • The file /secring.gpg/ is not anymore used to store the secret keys. + Merging of secret keys is now supported. + + • All support for /PGP-2 keys/ has been removed for security reasons. + + • The standard key generation interface is now much leaner. This will + help a new user to quickly generate a suitable key. + + • Support for /Elliptic Curve Cryptography/ (ECC) is now available. + + • Commands to create and sign keys from the command line without any + extra prompts are now available. + + • The Pinentry may now show the new passphrase entry and the + passphrase confirmation entry in one dialog. + + • There is no more need to manually start the gpg-agent. It is now + started by any part of GnuPG as needed. + + • Problems with importing keys with the same long key id have been + addressed. + + • The /dirmngr/ is now part of GnuPG proper and also takes care of + accessing keyserver. + + • Keyserver pools are now handled in a smarter way. + + • A new format for locally storing the public keys is now used. This + considerable speeds up operations on large keyrings. + + • /Revocation certificates/ are now created by default. + + • Card support has been updated, new readers and token types are + supported. + + • The format of the key listing has been changed to better identify + the properties of a key. + + • A file with the recipient’s key may now be used directly. + + • Gpg can be used to filter out parts of a key. + + • The gpg-agent may now be used on Windows as /pageant/ replacement + for /putty/ in the same way it is used for years on Unix as + /ssh-agent/ replacement. + + • Creation of X.509 certificates has been improved. It is now also + possible to export them directly in PKCS#8 and PEM format for use on + TLS servers. + + • Export of /ssh/ keys has been integrated. + + • The scripts to create a Windows installer are now part of GnuPG. + + Now for the detailed description of these new features. Note that the + examples assume that /gpg/ is installed as /gpg/. Your installation + may have it installed under the name /gpg2/. + + +1.1 Removal of the secret keyring +───────────────────────────────── + + gpg used to keep the public key pairs in two files: `pubring.gpg' and + `secring.gpg'. The only difference is that secring stored in addition + to the public part also the private part of the key pair. The secret + keyring thus contained only the keys for which a private key is + available, that is the user’s key. It required a lot of code to keep + both versions of the key in sync and led to sometimes surprising + inconsistencies. + + The design of GnuPG-2 demands that only the gpg-agent has control over + the private parts of the keys and the actual encryption engine (gpg or + gpgsm) does not know about the private key but care only about session + keys and keys for symmetric encryption. This has been implemented + about 10 years ago for /gpgsm/ (the S/MIME part of GnuPG). However, + /gpg/ (the OpenPGP part) used the gpg-agent only as passphrase entry + and cache device but handles the private key itself. + + With GnuPG 2.1 this changed and /gpg/ now also delegates all private + key operations to the gpg-agent. Thus there is no more code in the + /gpg/ binary for handling private keys. En passant this allows the + long time requested “merging of secret keys” and several other + advanced key management techniques. + + To ease the migration to the no-secring method, /gpg/ detects the + presence of a `secring.gpg' and converts the keys on-the-fly to the + the key store of /gpg-agent/ (this is the `private-keys-v1.d' + directory below the GnuPG home directory (`~/.gnupg')). This is done + only once and an existing `secring.gpg' is then not anymore touched by + /gpg/. This allows co-existence of older GnuPG versions with GnuPG + 2.1. However, any change to the private keys using the new /gpg/ will + not show up when using pre-2.1 versions of GnuPG and vice versa. + + Note that the command `--export-secret-keys' still creates an OpenPGP + compliant file with the secret keys. This is achieved by asking + /gpg-agent/ to convert a key and return it in the OpenPGP protected + format. The export operation requires that the passphrase for the key + is entered so that /gpg-agent/ is able to change the protection from + its internal format to the OpenPGP required format. + + +1.2 Removal of PGP-2 support +──────────────────────────── + + Some algorithms and parts of the protocols as used by the 20 years old + [PGP-2] software are meanwhile considered unsafe. In particular the + baked in use of the [MD5] hash algorithm limits the security of PGP-2 + keys to non-acceptable rate. Technically those PGP-2 keys are called + version 3 keys (v3) and are easily identified by a shorter fingerprint + which is commonly presented as 16 separate double hex digits. + + With GnuPG 2.1 all support for those keys has gone. If they are in an + existing keyring they will eventually be removed. If GnuPG encounters + such a key on import it will not be imported due to the not anymore + implemented v3 key format. Removing the v3 key support also reduces + complexity of the code and is thus better than to keep on handling + them with a specific error message. + + There is one use case where PGP-2 keys may still be required: For + existing encrypted data. We suggest to keep a version of GnuPG 1.4 + around which still has support for these keys (it might be required to + use the `--allow-weak-digest-algos' option). A better solution is to + re-encrypt the data using a modern key. + + + [PGP-2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy + + [MD5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5 + + +1.3 Leaner key generation interface +─────────────────────────────────── + + This is best shown with an example: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --gen-key + │ gpg (GnuPG) 2.1.0; Copyright (C) 2014 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. + │ + │ gpg: keybox '/home/foo/.gnupg/pubring.kbx' created + │ Note: Use "gpg --full-gen-key" for a full featured key generation dialog. + │ + │ GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key. + │ + │ Real name: Glenn Greenwald + │ Email address: glenn@example.org + │ You selected this USER-ID: + │ "Glenn Greenwald <glenn@example.org>" + │ + │ Change (N)ame, (E)mail, or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o + │ [...] + │ pub rsa2048/68FD0088 2014-11-03 + │ Key fingerprint = 0290 5ABF 17C7 81FB C390 9B00 636A 1BBD 68FD 0088 + │ uid [ultimate] Glenn Greenwald <glenn@example.org> + │ sub rsa2048/84439DCD 2014-11-03 + └──── + + Thus only the name and the mail address are required. For all other + parameters the default values are used. Many graphical frontends + works in the same way. Note that /gpg/ prints a hint for the old time + gpg users on how to get the full option menu. + + +1.4 Support for ECC +─────────────────── + + GnuPG now support Elliptic Curve keys for public key encryption. This + is defined in [RFC-6637]. Because there is no other mainstream + OpenPGP implementation yet available which supports ECC, the use of + such keys is still very limited. Thus GnuPG 2.1 currently hides the + options to create an ECC key. + + For those who want to experiment with ECC or already want to prepare a + key for future use, the command `--full-gen-key' along with the option + `--expert' is the enabler: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --expert --full-gen-key + │ gpg (GnuPG) 2.1.0; Copyright (C) 2014 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. + │ + │ Please select what kind of key you want: + │ (1) RSA and RSA (default) + │ (2) DSA and Elgamal + │ (3) DSA (sign only) + │ (4) RSA (sign only) + │ (7) DSA (set your own capabilities) + │ (8) RSA (set your own capabilities) + │ (9) ECC and ECC + │ (10) ECC (sign only) + │ (11) ECC (set your own capabilities) + │ Your selection? 9 + │ Please select which elliptic curve you want: + │ (2) NIST P-256 + │ (3) NIST P-384 + │ (4) NIST P-521 + │ (5) Brainpool P-256 + │ (6) Brainpool P-384 + │ (7) Brainpool P-512 + │ Your selection? 2 + │ Please specify how long the key should be valid. + │ 0 = key does not expire + │ <n> = key expires in n days + │ <n>w = key expires in n weeks + │ <n>m = key expires in n months + │ <n>y = key expires in n years + │ Key is valid for? (0) + │ Key does not expire at all + │ Is this correct? (y/N) y + │ + │ GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key. + │ + │ Real name: Edward Snowden + │ Email address: edward@example.org + │ Comment: + │ You selected this USER-ID: + │ "Edward Snowden <edward@example.org>" + │ + │ Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o + │ [...] + │ pub nistp256/382660E3 2014-11-03 + │ Key fingerprint = E630 27CF 3D68 22A7 6FF2 093E D179 9E72 3826 60E3 + │ uid [ultimate] Edward Snowden <edward@example.org> + │ sub nistp256/48C9A997 2014-11-03 nistp256 + └──── + + In this example we created a primary ECC key for signing and an subkey + for encryption. For both we use the NIST P-256 curve. The key may + now be used in the same way as any other key. It is possible to add + an RSA subkey or one can create an RSA or DSA main key and add an ECC + subkey for signing or encryption. Note that the list of offered + curves depends on the installed Libgcrypt version. + + For many people the NIST and also the Brainpool curves have an + doubtful origin and thus the plan for GnuPG is to use Bernstein’s + [Curve 25519] as default. GnuPG 2.1.0 already comes with support for + signing keys using the [Ed25519] variant of this curve. This has not + yet been standardized by the IETF (i.e. there is no RFC) but we won’t + wait any longer and go ahead using the proposed format for this + signing algorithm. The format for an encryption key has not yet been + finalized and will be added to GnuPG in one of the next point + releases. Recall that an encryption subkey can be added to a key at + any time. If you want to create a signing key you may do it this way: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --expert --full-gen-key + │ gpg (GnuPG) 2.1.0; Copyright (C) 2014 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. + │ + │ Please select what kind of key you want: + │ (1) RSA and RSA (default) + │ (2) DSA and Elgamal + │ (3) DSA (sign only) + │ (4) RSA (sign only) + │ (7) DSA (set your own capabilities) + │ (8) RSA (set your own capabilities) + │ (9) ECC and ECC + │ (10) ECC (sign only) + │ (11) ECC (set your own capabilities) + │ Your selection? 10 + │ Please select which elliptic curve you want: + │ (1) Curve 25519 + │ (2) NIST P-256 + │ (3) NIST P-384 + │ (4) NIST P-521 + │ (5) Brainpool P-256 + │ (6) Brainpool P-384 + │ (7) Brainpool P-512 + │ Your selection? 1 + │ gpg: WARNING: Curve25519 is not yet part of the OpenPGP standard. + │ Use this curve anyway? (y/N) y + │ Please specify how long the key should be valid. + │ 0 = key does not expire + │ <n> = key expires in n days + │ <n>w = key expires in n weeks + │ <n>m = key expires in n months + │ <n>y = key expires in n years + │ Key is valid for? (0) + │ Key does not expire at all + │ Is this correct? (y/N) y + │ + │ GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key. + │ + │ Real name: Laura Poitras + │ Email address: laura@example.org + │ Comment: + │ You selected this USER-ID: + │ "Laura Poitras <laura@example.org>" + │ + │ Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o + │ [...] + │ pub ed25519/5C1AFC2A 2014-11-03 + │ Key fingerprint = ED85 4D98 5D8F 502F C6C5 FFB2 AA81 319E 5C1A FC2A + │ uid [ultimate] Laura Poitras <laura@example.org> + └──── + + Support for ECC keys is available only on some keyservers but it is + expected that this will be fixed over the next few months. + + + [RFC-6637] https://rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6637 + + [Curve 25519] http://cr.yp.to/ecdh/curve25519-20060209.pdf + + [Ed25519] http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13389-012-0027-1 + + +1.5 Quick generate and sign commands +──────────────────────────────────── + + Sometimes it is useful to use only command line options without any + parameter file or interactive prompts for generating a key or to sign + a key. This can now be accomplished with a few new commands: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --batch --quick-gen-key 'Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org>' + │ gpg: key 911B90A9 marked as ultimately trusted + └──── + + If a key with that user id already exists, gpg bails out with an error + message. You can force creation using the option `--yes'. If you + want some more control, you may not use `--batch' and gpg will ask for + confirmation and show the resulting key: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --quick-gen-key 'Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org>' + │ About to create a key for: + │ "Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org>" + │ + │ Continue? (Y/n) y + │ gpg: A key for "Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org>" already exists + │ Create anyway? (y/N) y + │ gpg: creating anyway + │ [...] + │ pub rsa2048/BD19AC1C 2014-11-04 + │ Key fingerprint = 15CB 723E 2000 A1A8 2505 F3B7 CC00 B501 BD19 AC1C + │ uid [ultimate] Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org> + │ sub rsa2048/72A4D018 2014-11-04 + └──── + + Another common operation is to sign a key. /gpg/ can do this directly + from the command line by giving the fingerprint of the to-be-signed + key: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --quick-sign-key '15CB 723E 2000 A1A8 2505 F3B7 CC00 B501 BD19 AC1C' + │ + │ pub rsa2048/BD19AC1C + │ created: 2014-11-04 expires: never usage: SC + │ trust: ultimate validity: ultimate + │ Primary key fingerprint: 15CB 723E 2000 A1A8 2505 F3B7 CC00 B501 BD19 AC1C + │ + │ Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org> + └──── + + In case the key has already been signed, the command prints a note and + exits with success. In case you want to check that it really worked, + use `--check-sigs' as usual: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --check-sigs '15CB 723E 2000 A1A8 2505 F3B7 CC00 B501 BD19 AC1C' + │ gpg: checking the trustdb + │ gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model + │ gpg: depth: 0 valid: 6 signed: 1 trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 6u + │ pub rsa2048/BD19AC1C 2014-11-04 + │ uid [ full ] Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org> + │ sig!3 BD19AC1C 2014-11-04 Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org> + │ sig! 68FD0088 2014-11-04 Glenn Greenwald <glenn@example.org> + │ sub rsa2048/72A4D018 2014-11-04 + │ sig! BD19AC1C 2014-11-04 Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org> + └──── + + + The fingerprint may also be given without the spaces in which case + there is no need for the quotes. If you want to sign only certain + user ids of a key, list those user id verbatim after the fingerprint. + To create a non-exportable key signature, use the command + `--quick-lsign-key' instead. + + Since version 2.1.4 it possible to directly add another user id to an + existing key: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg -k 8CFDE12197965A9A + │ pub ed25519/8CFDE12197965A9A 2014-08-19 + │ uid [ unknown] EdDSA sample key 1 + │ $ gpg --quick-adduid 8CFDE12197965A9A 'Sample 2 <me@example.org>' + │ $ gpg -k 8CFDE12197965A9A + │ pub ed25519/8CFDE12197965A9A 2014-08-19 + │ uid [ unknown] Sample 2 <me@example.org> + │ uid [ unknown] EdDSA sample key 1 + └──── + + Since version 2.1.13 another subkey can directly be added to an + existing key: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --quick-addkey 15CB723E2000A1A82505F3B7CC00B501BD19AC1C - - 2016-12-31 + │ $ gpg -k 15CB723E2000A1A82505F3B7CC00B501BD19AC1C + │ pub rsa2048 2014-11-04 [SC] + │ 15CB723E2000A1A82505F3B7CC00B501BD19AC1C + │ uid [ unknown] Daniel Ellsberg <ellsberg@example.org> + │ sub rsa2048 2014-11-04 [E] + │ sub rsa2048 2016-06-06 [E] [expires: 2016-12-31] + └──── + + Here we created another encryption subkey with an expiration date. + The key listing also shows the default key listing format introduced + with 2.1.13. There are a lot of other options to the `--quick-addkey' + command which are described in the manual. + + Since version 2.1.14 it possible to revoke a user id on an existing + key: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg -k 8CFDE12197965A9A + │ pub ed25519/8CFDE12197965A9A 2014-08-19 + │ uid [ unknown] Sample 2 <me@example.org> + │ uid [ unknown] EdDSA sample key 1 + │ $ gpg --quick-revuid 8CFDE12197965A9A 'EdDSA sample key 1' + │ $ gpg -k 8CFDE12197965A9A + │ pub ed25519/8CFDE12197965A9A 2014-08-19 + │ uid [ unknown] Sample 2 <me@example.org> + └──── + + Since version 2.1.17 the expiration date of the primary key can be + changed directly: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --quick-set-expire 5B83120DB1E3A65AE5A8DCF6AA43F1DCC7FED1B7 2017-12-31 + │ $ gpg -K 5B83120DB1E3A65AE5A8DCF6AA43F1DCC7FED1B7 + │ sec rsa2048 2016-06-22 [SC] [expires: 2017-12-31] + │ 5B83120DB1E3A65AE5A8DCF6AA43F1DCC7FED1B7 + │ uid [ultimate] steve.biko@example.net + │ ssb rsa2048 2016-06-22 [E] + │ + │ $ gpg --quick-set-expire 5B83120DB1E3A65AE5A8DCF6AA43F1DCC7FED1B7 none + │ $ gpg -K 5B83120DB1E3A65AE5A8DCF6AA43F1DCC7FED1B7 + │ sec rsa2048 2016-06-22 [SC] + │ 5B83120DB1E3A65AE5A8DCF6AA43F1DCC7FED1B7 + │ uid [ultimate] steve.biko@example.net + │ ssb rsa2048 2016-06-22 [E] + └──── + + +1.6 Improved Pinentry support +───────────────────────────── + + When using a recent Pinentry module (0.90, GTK+ variant), the + gpg-agent will not anymore show two separate Pinentry dialogs to enter + a new passphrase and later to confirm the new passphrase. Instead the + first dialog also has the confirm/repeat entry and internally checks + whether they match. + + With any Pinentry version the several separate dialogs to inform and + ask for confirmation about questionable properties of a new passphrase + (e.g. length, only alpha letters) have been combined into one dialog + to show all non-asserted constraints at once. + + The GTK+ Pinentry does now allow pasting of values into the entries. + Copying them from the entries is still inhibited on purpose. + Depending on the system, the option `no-grab' may be required for in + the `gpg-agent.conf' file to actually make use of the paste feature. + + +1.7 Auto-start of the gpg-agent +─────────────────────────────── + + The /gpg-agent/ is the central part of the GnuPG system. It takes + care of all private (secret) keys and if required diverts operations + to a smartcard or other token. It also provides support for the + Secure Shell by implementing the ssh-agent protocol. + + The classic way to run /gpg-agent/ on Unix systems is by launching it + at login time and use an environment variable (`GPG_AGENT_INFO') to + tell the other GnuPG modules how to connect to the agent. However, + correctly managing the start up and this environment variable is + cumbersome so that an easier method is required. Since GnuPG 2.0.16 + the `--use-standard-socket' option already allowed to start the agent + on the fly; however the environment variable was still required. + + With GnuPG 2.1 the need of `GPG_AGENT_INFO' has been completely + removed and the variable is ignored. Instead a fixed Unix domain + socket named `S.gpg-agent' in the GnuPG home directory (by default + `~/.gnupg') is used. The agent is also started on demand by all tools + requiring services from the agent. + + If the option `--enable-ssh-support' is used the auto-start mechanism + does not work because /ssh/ does not know about this mechanism. + Instead it is required that the environment variable `SSH_AUTH_SOCK' + is set to the `S.gpg-agent.ssh' socket in the GnuPG home directory. + Further /gpg-agent/ must be started: Either by using a GnuPG command + which implicitly starts /gpg-agent/ or by using `gpgconf --launch + gpg-agent' to explicitly start it if not yet done. + + +1.8 Duplicate long key id fixes +─────────────────────────────── + + A deficit of the OpenPGP protocol is that signatures carry only a + limited indication on which public key has been used to create a + signature. Thus a verification engine may only use this “long key id” + to look up the key in its own store or from a public keyserver. + Unfortunately it has now become possible to create a key with a long + key id matching the key id of another key. Importing a key with a + long key id already used by another key in gpg’s local key store was + not possible due to checks done on import. Now, if the “wrong” key + has been imported first /gpg/ would not allow later import of the + second “correct” key. This problem has been fixed in 2.1 by allowing + the import and by doing trial verification against all matching keys. + + +1.9 Enhanced Dirmngr +──────────────────── + + Before version 2.1, /gpg/ used so-called keyserver helpers to access + the OpenPGP keyservers. A problem with that is that they are short + living processes which are not able to keep a state. With 2.1, the + formerly separate package Dirmngr (which was separate due to copyright + assignment reasons) has been integrated into GnuPG. + + In the past /dirmngr/ was only used by /gpgsm/ for X.509 (S/MIME) CRL + and OCSP handling. Being a proper part of GnuPG /dirmngr/ does now + also care about accessing OpenPGP keyservers. This make its easier to + debug problems with the keyservers and to exchange additional + information about the keyserver between /gpg/ and /dirmngr/. It will + eventually also be possible to run background tasks to refresh keys. + + Although the ability to start /dirmngr/ as a system service is still + available, this is not anymore recommended and instead /dirmngr/ is + now by default started on-demand, very similar to /gpg-agent/. + + +1.10 Better keyserver pool support +────────────────────────────────── + + For load balancing reasons, keyservers are organized in pools to + enable instant round-robin DNS assignment of random keyservers. A + problem with that approach is that the DNS resolver is not aware of + the state of the keyserver. If a keyserver has gone down or a routing + problems occurs, /gpg/ and its keyserver helpers were not aware of it + and would try over and over to use the same, dead, keyserver up until + the DNS information expires and a the DNS resolver assigned a new + server from the pool. + + The new /dirmngr/ in GnuPG does not use the implicit round-robin of + the DNS resolver but uses its own DNS lookup and keeps an internal + table of all hosts from the pool along with the encountered aliveness + state. Thus after a failure (timeout) of a request, /dirmngr/ flags a + host as dead and randomly selects another one from the pool. After a + few hours the flag is removed so that the host will be tried again. + It is also possible to mark a specific host from a pool explicitly as + dead so that it won’t be used in the future. To interact with the + /dirmngr/ the `gpg-connect-agent' tool is used: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'help keyserver' /bye + │ $ gpg-connect-agent --dirmngr 'keyserver --hosttable' /bye + └──── + + The first command prints a help screen for the keyserver command and + the second command prints the current host table. + + +1.11 Faster keyring format +────────────────────────── + + The format GnuPG has always used for the public keyring is actually a + slightly extended version of the on-the-wire format for OpenPGP key + exchange. This format is quite inflexible to work with when random + access to keys in the keyring is required. In fact /gpg/ always + parsed all keys in the keyring until it encountered the desired one. + With a large keyring (more than a few thousand keys) this could be + quite slow. + + From its very beginning /gpgsm/ has used a different format to store + public keys (certificates) which we call a /keybox/. That file format + carries meta information about the stored keys and thus allows + searching without actually parsing the key and computing fingerprints + and such. The /keybox/ format has been designed to be protocol + independent and with 2.1 support for OpenPGP keys has been added. + Random access to the keys is now really fast and keyrings with 30000 + keys and more are now easily possible. That change also enables us to + easily introduce other storage methods + + If no `pubring.gpg' is found, /gpg/ defaults to the new /keybox/ + format and creates a `pubring.kbx' keybox file. If such a keybox file + already exists, for example due to the use of /gpgsm/, it will also be + used for OpenPGP keys. However, if a `pubring.gpg' is found and no + keybox file with OpenPGP keys exists, the old `pubring.gpg' will be + used. Take care: GnuPG versions before 2.1 will always use the + `pubring.gpg' file and not know anything about keys stored in the + keybox file. + + To convert an existing `pubring.gpg' file to the keybox format, you + first backup the ownertrust values, then rename the file to (for + example) `publickeys', so it won’t be recognized by any GnuPG version, + then run import, and finally restore the ownertrust values: + + ┌──── + │ $ cd ~/.gnupg + │ $ gpg --export-ownertrust >otrust.lst + │ $ mv pubring.gpg publickeys + │ $ gpg --import-options import-local-sigs --import publickeys + │ $ gpg --import-ownertrust otrust.lst + └──── + + You may then rename the `publickeys' file back so that it can be used + by older GnuPG versions. Remember that in this case you have two + independent copies of the public keys. The ownertrust values are kept + by all gpg versions in the file `trustdb.gpg' but the above + precautions need to be taken to keep them over an import. + + +1.12 Auto-generated revocation certificates +─────────────────────────────────────────── + + This version creates an ASCII armored revocation certificate for each + generated keypair and stores that certificate in a file named after + the fingerprint of the key in the `openpgp-revocs.d' directory below + the GnuPG home directory. Brief instructions on how to use this + revocation certificate are put at the top of the file. + + +1.13 Improved card support +────────────────────────── + + The /scdaemon/, which is responsible for accessing smardcards and + other tokens, has received many updates. In particular pluggable USB + readers with a fixed card now work smoothless and similar to standard + readers. The latest features of the [gnuk] token are supported. Code + for the SmartCard-HSM has been added. More card readers with a PIN + pad are supported. The internal CCID driver does now also work with + certain non-auto-configuration equipped readers. + + Since version 2.1.19 multiple card readers are support and the format + of the Pinentry prompts has been changed to show more information on + the requested card. + + + [gnuk] http://www.fsij.org/doc-gnuk/ + + +1.14 New format for key listings +──────────────────────────────── + + Due to the introduction of ECC keys the old format to list keys was + not anymore suitable. In particular, the length of an ECC key is + defined but its expressiveness is limited without the other parameters + of the curve. The common way to describe an ECC key is by using the + assigned name of its curve. To allow for a common description we now + either use the algorithm name with appended key length or use the name + of the curve: + + ┌──── + │ pub 2048D/1E42B367 2007-12-31 [expires: 2018-12-31] + │ + │ pub dsa2048 2007-12-31 [SC] [expires: 2018-12-31] + │ 80615870F5BAD690333686D0F2AD85AC1E42B367 + │ + │ pub ed25519 2014-10-18 [SC] + │ 0B7F0C1D690BC440D5AFF9B56902F00A0AA914C9 + └──── + + The first two "pub"-items show the same key in the old format and in + the new format. The third "pub"-item shows an example of an ECC key + using an ed25519 curve. Note that since version 2.1.13 the key id is + not anymore shown. Instead the full fingerprint is shown in a compact + format; by using the option `--with-fingerprint' the non-compact + format is used. The `--keyid-format' option can be used to switch + back to the discouraged format which prints only the key id. + + As a further change the validity of a key is now shown by default; + that is `show-uid-validity' is implicitly used for the + `--list-options'. + + The annotated key listing produced by the `--with-colons' options did + not change. However a couple of new fields have been added, for + example if the new option `--with-secret' is used the “S/N of a token + field” indicates the presence of a secret key even in a public key + listing. This option is supported by recent [GPGME] versions and + makes writing of key manager software easier. + + + [GPGME] https://gnupg.org/software/gpgme/ + + +1.15 Recipient key from file +──────────────────────────── + + Since version 2.1.14 it is possible to specify the recipient’s key by + providing a file with that key. This done with the new options + `--recipient-file' (or short `-f') and `--hidden-recipient-file' (or + short `-F'). The file must containing exactly one key in binary or + armored format. All keys specified with those options are always + considered fully valid. These option may be mixed with the regular + options to specify a key. Along with the new convenience option + `--no-keyring' it is now possible to encrypt data without maintaining + a local keyring. + + +1.16 Using gpg as a filter +────────────────────────── + + Since version 2.1.14 the export and import options have been enhanced + to allow the use of /gpg/ to modify a key without first stroing it in + the keyring. For example: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --import-options import-minimal,import-export \ + │ --output smallkey.gpg --import key.gpg + └──── + + copies the keys in `keys.gpg' to `smallkey.gpg' while also removing + all key signatures except for the latest self-signatures. This can + even be further restricted to copy only a specific user ID to the + output file: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --import-options import-minimal,import-export \ + │ --import-filter keepuid='mbox = foo@example.org' \ + │ --output smallkey.gpg --import key.gpg + └──── + + Here the new `--import-filter' option is used to remove all user IDs + except for those which have the mail address “foo@example.org”. The + same is also possible while exporting a key: + + ┌──── + │ $ gpg --export-filter keepuid='mbox = me@example.org' \ + │ --armor --export 8CFDE12197965A9A >smallkey.asc + └──── + + +1.17 Support for Putty +────────────────────── + + On Windows the new option `--enable-putty-support' allows gpg-agent to + act as a replacement for [Putty]’s authentication agent /Pageant/. It + is the Windows counterpart for the `--enable-ssh-support' option as + used on Unix. + + + [Putty] http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ + + +1.18 Export of SSH public keys +────────────────────────────── + + The new command `--export-ssh-key' makes it easy to export an /ssh/ + public key in the format used for ssh’s `authorized_keys' file. By + default the command exports the newest subkey with an authorization + usage flags. A special syntax can be used to export other subkeys. + This command is available since 2.1.11 and replaces the former debug + utility /gpgkey2ssh/. + + +1.19 Improved X.509 certificate creation +──────────────────────────────────────── + + In addition to an improved certificate signing request menu, it is now + possible to create a self-signed certificate using the interactive + menu of /gpgsm/. + + In batch mode the certificate creation dialog can now be controlled by + a parameter file with several new keywords. Such a parameter file + allows the creation of arbitrary X.509 certificates similar to what + can be done with /openssl/. It may thus be used as the base for a CA + software. For details see the “CSR and certificate creation” section + in the manual. + + The new commands `--export-secret-key-p8' and –export-secret-key-raw= + may be used to export a secret key directly in PKCS#8 or PKCS#1 + format. Thus X.509 certificates for TLS use may be managed by /gpgsm/ + and directly exported in a format suitable for OpenSSL based servers. + + +1.20 Scripts to create a Windows installer +────────────────────────────────────────── + + GnuPG now comes with the /speedo/ build system which may be used to + quickly download and build GnuPG and all its direct dependencies on a + decent Unix system. See the README file for more instructions. + + The very same script may also be used to build a complete NSIS based + installer for Windows using the mingw-w64 cross-compiler toolchain. + That installer will feature GnuPG proper, GPA as graphical frontend, + and GpgEX as a Windows Explorer extension. GnuPG needs to be unpacked + and from the top source directory you run this command + + ┌──── + │ make -f build-aux/speedo.mk w32-installer + └──── + + This command downloads all direct dependencies, checks the signatures + using the GnuPG version from the build system (all Linux distros + feature a suitable GnuPG tool), builds everything from source, and + uses NSIS to create the installer. Although this sounds easy, some + experience in setting up a development machine is still required. + Some versions of the toolchain exhibit bugs and thus your mileage may + vary. See the [Wiki] for more info. + + Support for keyserver access over TLS is currently not available but + will be added with one of the next point releases. + + + + # Copyright 2014--2017 The GnuPG Project. + # This work is licensed under the Creative Commons + # Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of + # this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ + # or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA + # 94042, USA. + # + # The canonical source for this article can be found in the gnupg-doc + # git repository as web/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.org. + + + [Wiki] https://wiki.gnupg.org/Build2.1_Windows |