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gnupg/announce.txt

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To: gnupg-announce@gnupg.org, info-gnu@gnu.org Mail-Followup-To: gnupg-users@gnupg.org

Hello!

We are pleased to announce the availability of a new stable GnuPG-2 release: Version 2.0.24. This release includes a security fix to stop a possible DoS using garbled compressed data packets which can be used to put gpg into an infinite loop.

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage. It can be used to encrypt data, create digital signatures, help authenticating using Secure Shell and to provide a framework for public key cryptography. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the OpenPGP and S/MIME standards.

GnuPG-2 has a different architecture than GnuPG-1 (e.g. 1.4.17) in that it splits up functionality into several modules. However, both versions may be installed alongside without any conflict. In fact, the gpg version from GnuPG-1 is able to make use of the gpg-agent as included in GnuPG-2 and allows for seamless passphrase caching. The advantage of GnuPG-1 is its smaller size and the lack of dependency on other modules at run and build time. We will keep maintaining GnuPG-1 versions because they are very useful for small systems and for server based applications requiring only OpenPGP support.

GnuPG is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3+). GnuPG-2 works best on GNU/Linux and *BSD systems but is also available for other Unices, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

What's New in 2.0.24

  • gpg: Avoid DoS due to garbled compressed data packets.

  • gpg: Screen keyserver responses to avoid importing unwanted keys from rogue servers.

  • gpg: The validity of user ids is now shown by default. To revert this add "list-options no-show-uid-validity" to gpg.conf.

  • gpg: Print more specific reason codes with the INV_RECP status.

  • gpg: Allow loading of a cert only key to an OpenPGP card.

  • gpg-agent: Make ssh support for ECDSA keys work with Libgcrypt 1.6.

  • Minor bug fixes.

Getting the Software

Please follow the instructions found at https://www.gnupg.org/download/ or read on:

GnuPG 2.0.24 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or direct from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/ . The list of mirrors can be found at https://www.gnupg.org/mirrors.html . Note that GnuPG is not available at ftp.gnu.org.

On ftp.gnupg.org and on its mirrors you should find the following new files in the gnupg/ directory:

  • The GnuPG-2 source code compressed using BZIP2 and its OpenPGP signature:

    gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2 (4201k) gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2.sig

  • A patch file to upgrade a 2.0.23 GnuPG source tree. This patch does not include updates of the language files.

    gnupg-2.0.23-2.0.24.diff.bz2 (20k)

Note, that we don't distribute gzip compressed tarballs for GnuPG-2. A Windows version will eventually be released at https://gpg4win.org .

Checking the Integrity

In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of the following ways:

  • If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you can simply check the supplied signature. For example to check the signature of the file gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

    gpg --verify gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2.sig

    This checks whether the signature file matches the source file. You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and made by that signing key. Make sure that you have the right key, either by checking the fingerprint of that key with other sources or by checking that the key has been signed by a trustworthy other key. Note, that you can retrieve the signing key using the command

    finger wk ,at' g10code.com

    or using a keyserver like

    gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 4F25E3B6

    The distribution key 4F25E3B6 is signed by the well known key 1E42B367.

    NEVER USE A GNUPG VERSION YOU JUST DOWNLOADED TO CHECK THE INTEGRITY OF THE SOURCE - USE AN EXISTING GNUPG INSTALLATION!

  • If you are not able to use an old version of GnuPG, you have to verify the SHA-1 checksum. Assuming you downloaded the file gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this:

    sha1sum gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2

    and check that the output matches the first line from the following list:

010e027d5f622778cadc4c124013fe515ed705cf gnupg-2.0.24.tar.bz2 594d7f91ba4fc215345f18afee46c4aa9f2b3303 gnupg-2.0.23-2.0.24.diff.bz2

Documentation

The file gnupg.info has the complete user manual of the system. Separate man pages are included as well; however they have not all the details available in the manual. It is also possible to read the complete manual online in HTML format at

https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/

or in Portable Document Format at

https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg.pdf .

The chapters on gpg-agent, gpg and gpgsm include information on how to set up the whole thing. You may also want search the GnuPG mailing list archives or ask on the gnupg-users mailing lists for advise on how to solve problems. Many of the new features are around for several years and thus enough public knowledge is already available.

Almost all mail clients support GnuPG-2. Mutt users may want to use the configure option "--enable-gpgme" during build time and put a "set use_crypt_gpgme" in ~/.muttrc to enable S/MIME support along with the reworked OpenPGP support.

Support

Please consult the archive of the gnupg-users mailing list before reporting a bug https://gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html. We suggest to send bug reports for a new release to this list in favor of filing a bug at https://bugs.gnupg.org. We also have a dedicated service directory at:

https://www.gnupg.org/service.html

The driving force behind the development of GnuPG is the company of its principal author, Werner Koch. Maintenance and improvement of GnuPG and related software takes up most of their resources. To allow him to continue this work he kindly asks to either purchase a support contract, engage g10 Code for custom enhancements, or to donate money:

https://gnupg.org/donate/

Thanks

We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, administering the servers, spreading the word, and answering questions on the mailing lists.

Happy Hacking,

The GnuPG Team