Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-27 Thread Peter Lebbing
On 27/11/15 12:41, Andrew Gallagher wrote: > There's a post about how to do this in the list archives: > > https://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-users/2009-May/036505.html Thanks for the pointer! > ... but it's really not worth your while. So long as your primary key > doesn't have E usage

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-27 Thread Peter Lebbing
On 23/11/15 21:31, James wrote: > It appears that information I had read previously was erroneous. I was > under the impression the capabilities (at least for the primary key) > were set in stone, hence my apprehension at avoiding those insatiable > knobs and gears I like to tinker with. ;) Well,

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread James
Thank you Robert and Peter. It appears that information I had read previously was erroneous. I was under the impression the capabilities (at least for the primary key) were set in stone, hence my apprehension at avoiding those insatiable knobs and gears I like to tinker with. ;) This thread has

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread James
All, I'm pleasantly surprised by the warm and helpful reception of this community to my many questions. Thank you all in advance for your detailed and thorough responses. The conversation thus far has been quite thought-provoking. I thoroughly read and re-read the responses in this thread,

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread James
Robert, I appreciate the input and hear you loud and clear. I respect that GPG makes sane, technically secure and well-thought-out decisions. As I mentioned in my previous response, the folks that designed and coded GPG are likely far more intelligent than I. This does not assuage my deep

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread Robert J. Hansen
> The same can be said for almost any complex system, software or not. Absolutely. Please don't misinterpret what I said as trying to dissuade you from curiosity. I'm just urging you to not let your curiosity lead you into making poor decisions from the get-go. The following anecdote is

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread Peter Lebbing
On 23/11/15 17:20, James wrote: > If you create a primary key, upload it to a public > keyserver and later decide: "hrm, my public key should really only > certify, not sign," it's a bit too late. (although not impossible, > difficult to change ex post facto). Okay, so let me answer this one

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread Robert J. Hansen
> - I believe that GPG has sane settings out-of-the-box, but prefer to > verify that trust. ;) Why doesn't GPG set the digest algorithm to > SHA512 instead of 256 out of the box? For the same reason it doesn't default to RSA-4096: because the authors are unconvinced there's a need. Longer is not

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-23 Thread Benjamin Black
Among the privacy-concerned, there is a strong impulse to use the hardest possible cryptography. The truth is that 2048-bit keys and a 256-bit hash algorithm are completely secure against brute force attacks, and barring any surprising developments in cryptanalysis, will remain so for a good long

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-18 Thread Peter Lebbing
On 17/11/15 15:33, Andrew Gallagher wrote: >> https://alexcabal.com/creating-the-perfect-gpg-keypair/ > > This is a fairly good article - I've used it myself for reference in the > past. Also have a look at: I disagree, I'd recommend people not to read that article, let alone follow its advice.

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-17 Thread Robert J. Hansen
> Is this accurate? Not really, no. One of the weirdest things about OpenPGP (and, by extension, GnuPG) is that it provides a great deal of mechanism and very little in the way of policy. As a result, it's incredibly difficult to speak about best practices in specific terms. What's good

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-17 Thread Pete Stephenson
On 11/17/2015 1:32 PM, James wrote: > All, > > I'm just dipping my toes into GPG and am making a significant effort > to "do things right" out of the gate. Welcome! > Based on my research, it is my understanding that "best practices" > dictate we should have one master key with subkeys for

Re: best practices for creating keys

2015-11-17 Thread Andrew Gallagher
On 17/11/15 12:32, James wrote: > > Based on my research, it is my understanding that "best practices" > dictate we should have one master key with subkeys for specific > purposes (personal work, "work" work, etc.). The master key is kept on > an "offline" computer and then used only to revoke

best practices for creating keys

2015-11-17 Thread James
All, I'm just dipping my toes into GPG and am making a significant effort to "do things right" out of the gate. Based on my research, it is my understanding that "best practices" dictate we should have one master key with subkeys for specific purposes (personal work, "work" work, etc.). The