On Jul 24, 2012, at 9:58 AM, ved...@nym.hush.com wrote: > Recently added a uid and deleted a uid to one of my keys. > > Found that to add a uid, gnupg asks for the passphrase, but to > delete a uid, it does not. > > (Doesn't really matter much, since the secret key is required for > both, > but was curious if there is any underlying reason why gnupg does it > this way.)
To add a UID, GnuPG needs to generate a binding signature from the primary key. To generate a signature, we of course need the passphrase. To delete a UID, GnuPG just needs to throw away packets. No signature needed, so no passphrase needed. Note that to revoke (rather than delete) a UID involves making a signature as well, and will also require a signature. David _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
