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GPG Key Generation and Practical File Encryption

How to generate a GPG key pair, encrypt and decrypt files, and apply symmetric encryption and signing in day-to-day work.

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Contents
  1. What is GPG?
  2. Generating Keys
  3. File Encryption (Public-Key)
  4. Symmetric Encryption (Password-Based)
  5. Digital Signatures
  6. Exporting / Importing Keys

What is GPG?

GNU Privacy Guard. It uses public-key cryptography for file encryption, digital signatures, and email encryption.

Generating Keys

Bash
gpg --full-generate-key
# RSA 4096 or Ed25519 , 2y

gpg --list-keys
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG

File Encryption (Public-Key)

Bash
gpg --encrypt --recipient "admin@example.com" secret.txt
# → secret.txt.gpg

gpg --decrypt secret.txt.gpg > secret.txt

gpg --armor --encrypt --recipient "admin@example.com" secret.txt
# → secret.txt.asc

Symmetric Encryption (Password-Based)

Bash
gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 backup.tar.gz
gpg --decrypt backup.tar.gz.gpg > backup.tar.gz

Digital Signatures

Bash
gpg --detach-sign release.tar.gz
# → release.tar.gz.sig

gpg --verify release.tar.gz.sig release.tar.gz

gpg --sign --encrypt --recipient "admin@example.com" file.txt

Exporting / Importing Keys

Bash
gpg --armor --export "admin@example.com" > public.key
gpg --armor --export-secret-keys "admin@example.com" > private.key

gpg --import public.key
gpg --import private.key
#gpg#encryption#pgp#Security
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