gnupg/announce.txt

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 2.0.23. This is a maintenace release with a few new features.

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. 1.4.14) 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 2.0.23

• gpg: Reject signatures made using the MD5 hash algorithm unless the new option --allow-weak-digest-algos or --pgp2 are given.

• gpg: Do not create a trustdb file if --trust-model=always is used.

• gpg: Only the major version number is by default included in the armored output.

• gpg: Print a warning if the Gnome-Keyring-Daemon intercepts the communication with the gpg-agent.

• gpg: The format of the fallback key listing ("gpg KEYFILE") is now more aligned to the regular key listing ("gpg -k").

• gpg: The option--show-session-key prints its output now before the decryption of the bulk message starts.

• gpg: New %U expando for the photo viewer.

• gpgsm: Improved handling of re-issued CA certificates.

• scdaemon: Various fixes for pinpad equipped card readers.

• Minor bug fixes.

Getting the Software

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

GnuPG 2.0.23 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 the FTP server and its mirrors you should find the following files in the gnupg/ directory:

gnupg-2.0.23.tar.bz2 (4196k) gnupg-2.0.23.tar.bz2.sig

  GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and its OpenPGP signature.

gnupg-2.0.22-2.0.23.diff.bz2 (53k)

  A patch file to upgrade a 2.0.22 GnuPG source tree.  This patch
  does not include updates of the language files.

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-2.0.23.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

  gpg --verify gnupg-2.0.23.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-2.0.23.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this:

  sha1sum gnupg-2.0.23.tar.bz2

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

c90e47ab95a40dd070fd75faef0a05c7b679553b gnupg-2.0.23.tar.bz2 e02cfab2bc046f9fac89eef098c34f58b5745d20 gnupg-2.0.22-2.0.23.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:

Maintaining and improving GnuPG is costly. For more than a decade, g10 Code GmbH, a German company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author Werner Koch, is bearing the majority of these costs. To help them carry on this work, they need your support. See

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