GPG cheatsheet

GPG stands for GNU Privacy Guard and it is security software inspired from PGP. It uses public-key cryptography where each user owns two keys: for decryption (public key) and for encryption (private key).

This cheatsheet gives a brief description of that could be done with this security tool.

Keys management

Generate key pair:

gpg --gen-key

Revoke keys:

gpg --gen-revoke

Delete keys:

gpg --delete-key KeyID
gpg --delete-secret-key KeyID
gpg --delete-secret-and-public-key KeyID

View keys:

gpg --list-key
gpg --list-public-keys
gpg --list-secret-keys

Cryptographic options

Encrypt file:

gpg -r KeyID -e -a -o file.out file.in

Decrypt file:

gpg -r KeyID -d -o file.out file.in

Sign a file:

gpg -s KeyID -o file.sig file.in

Detach signature:

gpg -b -a KeyID -o file.sig file.in

Import and Export

Export a private key to a file:

gpg --export-secret-key -a > file.out

Export a public key in a file:

gpg --export --armor KeyID > file.out

Import a private key from a file:

gpg --import --allow-secret-key-import file.in

Import a public key from a file:

gpg --import file.in

Send a public key to a server:

gpg --keyserver keyserver --send-key KeyID

Get a public key from server:

gpg --keyserver keyserver --recv-keys KeyID