gnupg/doc/DETAILS

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# doc/DETAILS -*- org -*-
#+TITLE: GnuPG Details
# Globally disable superscripts and subscripts:
#+OPTIONS: ^:{}
#
# Note: This file uses org-mode; it should be easy to read as plain
# text but be aware of some markup peculiarities: Verbatim code is
# enclosed in #+begin-example, #+end-example blocks or marked by a
# colon as the first non-white-space character, words bracketed with
# equal signs indicate a monospace font, and the usual /italics/,
# *bold*, and _underline_ conventions are recognized.
This is the DETAILS file for GnuPG which specifies some internals and
parts of the external API for GPG and GPGSM.
* Format of the colon listings
The format is a based on colon separated record, each recods starts
with a tag string and extends to the end of the line. Here is an
example:
#+begin_example
$ gpg --with-colons --list-keys \
--with-fingerprint --with-fingerprint wk@gnupg.org
pub:f:1024:17:6C7EE1B8621CC013:899817715:1055898235::m:::scESC:
fpr:::::::::ECAF7590EB3443B5C7CF3ACB6C7EE1B8621CC013:
uid:f::::::::Werner Koch <wk@g10code.com>:
uid:f::::::::Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org>:
sub:f:1536:16:06AD222CADF6A6E1:919537416:1036177416:::::e:
fpr:::::::::CF8BCC4B18DE08FCD8A1615906AD222CADF6A6E1:
sub:r:1536:20:5CE086B5B5A18FF4:899817788:1025961788:::::esc:
fpr:::::::::AB059359A3B81F410FCFF97F5CE086B5B5A18FF4:
#+end_example
The double =--with-fingerprint= prints the fingerprint for the subkeys
too. Old versions of gpg used a slightly different format and required
the use of the option =--fixed-list-mode= to conform to the format
described here.
** Description of the fields
*** Field 1 - Type of record
- pub :: Public key
- crt :: X.509 certificate
- crs :: X.509 certificate and private key available
- sub :: Subkey (secondary key)
- sec :: Secret key
- ssb :: Secret subkey (secondary key)
- uid :: User id (only field 10 is used).
- uat :: User attribute (same as user id except for field 10).
- sig :: Signature
- rev :: Revocation signature
- fpr :: Fingerprint (fingerprint is in field 10)
- pkd :: Public key data [*]
- grp :: Keygrip
- rvk :: Revocation key
- tru :: Trust database information [*]
- spk :: Signature subpacket [*]
- cfg :: Configuration data [*]
Records marked with an asterisk are described at [[*Special%20field%20formats][*Special fields]].
*** Field 2 - Validity
This is a letter describing the computed validity of a key.
Currently this is a single letter, but be prepared that additional
information may follow in some future versions. Note that GnuPG <
2.1 does not set this field for secret key listings.
- o :: Unknown (this key is new to the system)
- i :: The key is invalid (e.g. due to a missing self-signature)
- d :: The key has been disabled
(deprecated - use the 'D' in field 12 instead)
- r :: The key has been revoked
- e :: The key has expired
- - :: Unknown validity (i.e. no value assigned)
- q :: Undefined validity. '-' and 'q' may safely be treated as
the same value for most purposes
- n :: The key is not valid
- m :: The key is marginal valid.
- f :: The key is fully valid
- u :: The key is ultimately valid. This often means that the
secret key is available, but any key may be marked as
ultimately valid.
- w :: The key has a well known private part.
- s :: The key has special validity. This means that it might be
self-signed and expected to be used in the STEED sytem.
If the validity information is given for a UID or UAT record, it
describes the validity calculated based on this user ID. If given
for a key record it describes the validity taken from the best
rated user ID.
For X.509 certificates a 'u' is used for a trusted root
certificate (i.e. for the trust anchor) and an 'f' for all other
valid certificates.
*** Field 3 - Key length
The length of key in bits.
*** Field 4 - Public key algorithm
The values here are those from the OpenPGP specs or if they are
greather than 255 the algorithm ids as used by Libgcrypt.
*** Field 5 - KeyID
This is the 64 bit keyid as specified by OpenPGP and the last 64
bit of the SHA-1 fingerprint of an X.509 certifciate.
*** Field 6 - Creation date
The creation date of the key is given in UTC. For UID and UAT
records, this is used for the self-signature date. Note that the
date is usally printed in seconds since epoch, however, we are
migrating to an ISO 8601 format (e.g. "19660205T091500"). This is
currently only relevant for X.509. A simple way to detect the new
format is to scan for the 'T'. Note that old versions of gpg
without using the =--fixed-list-mode= option used a "yyyy-mm-tt"
format.
*** Field 7 - Expiration date
Key or UID/UAT expiration date or empty if it does not expire.
*** Field 8 - Certificate S/N, UID hash, trust signature info
Used for serial number in crt records. For UID and UAT records,
this is a hash of the user ID contents used to represent that
exact user ID. For trust signatures, this is the trust depth
seperated by the trust value by a space.
*** Field 9 - Ownertrust
This is only used on primary keys. This is a single letter, but
be prepared that additional information may follow in future
versions. For trust signatures with a regular expression, this is
the regular expression value, quoted as in field 10.
*** Field 10 - User-ID
The value is quoted like a C string to avoid control characters
(the colon is quoted =\x3a=). For a "pub" record this field is
not used on --fixed-list-mode. A UAT record puts the attribute
subpacket count here, a space, and then the total attribute
subpacket size. In gpgsm the issuer name comes here. A FPR
record stores the fingerprint here. The fingerprint of a
revocation key is stored here.
*** Field 11 - Signature class
Signature class as per RFC-4880. This is a 2 digit hexnumber
followed by either the letter 'x' for an exportable signature or
the letter 'l' for a local-only signature. The class byte of an
revocation key is also given here, 'x' and 'l' is used the same
way. This field if not used for X.509.
*** Field 12 - Key capabilities
The defined capabilities are:
- e :: Encrypt
- s :: Sign
- c :: Certify
- a :: Authentication
- ? :: Unknown capability
A key may have any combination of them in any order. In addition
to these letters, the primary key has uppercase versions of the
letters to denote the _usable_ capabilities of the entire key, and
a potential letter 'D' to indicate a disabled key.
*** Field 13 - Issuer certificate fingerprint or other info
Used in FPR records for S/MIME keys to store the fingerprint of
the issuer certificate. This is useful to build the certificate
path based on certificates stored in the local key database it is
only filled if the issuer certificate is available. The root has
been reached if this is the same string as the fingerprint. The
advantage of using this value is that it is guaranteed to have
been been build by the same lookup algorithm as gpgsm uses.
For "uid" records this field lists the preferences in the same way
gpg's --edit-key menu does.
For "sig" records, this is the fingerprint of the key that issued
the signature. Note that this is only filled in if the signature
verified correctly. Note also that for various technical reasons,
this fingerprint is only available if --no-sig-cache is used.
*** Field 14 - Flag field
Flag field used in the --edit menu output
*** Field 15 - S/N of a token
Used in sec/ssb to print the serial number of a token (internal
protect mode 1002) or a '#' if that key is a simple stub (internal
protect mode 1001). If the option --with-secret is used and a
secret key is available for the public key, a '+' indicates this.
*** Field 16 - Hash algorithm
For sig records, this is the used hash algorithm. For example:
2 = SHA-1, 8 = SHA-256.
*** Field 17 - Curve name
For pub, sub, sec, and ssb records this field is used for the ECC
curve name.
*** Field 18 - TOFU Policy
This is the TOFU policy. It is either good, bad, unknown, ask or
auto. This is only shows for uid records.
** Special fields
*** PKD - Public key data
If field 1 has the tag "pkd", a listing looks like this:
#+begin_example
pkd:0:1024:B665B1435F4C2 .... FF26ABB:
! ! !-- the value
! !------ for information number of bits in the value
!--------- index (eg. DSA goes from 0 to 3: p,q,g,y)
#+end_example
*** TRU - Trust database information
Example for a "tru" trust base record:
#+begin_example
tru:o:0:1166697654:1:3:1:5
#+end_example
- Field 2 :: Reason for staleness of trust. If this field is
empty, then the trustdb is not stale. This field may
have multiple flags in it:
- o :: Trustdb is old
- t :: Trustdb was built with a different trust model
than the one we are using now.
- Field 3 :: Trust model
- 0 :: Classic trust model, as used in PGP 2.x.
- 1 :: PGP trust model, as used in PGP 6 and later.
This is the same as the classic trust model,
except for the addition of trust signatures.
GnuPG before version 1.4 used the classic trust model
by default. GnuPG 1.4 and later uses the PGP trust
model by default.
- Field 4 :: Date trustdb was created in seconds since Epoch.
- Field 5 :: Date trustdb will expire in seconds since Epoch.
- Field 6 :: Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new
key signer (gpg's option --marginals-needed).
- Field 7 :: Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new
key signer. (gpg's option --completes-needed)
- Field 8 :: Maximum depth of a certification chain. (gpg's option
--max-cert-depth)
*** SPK - Signature subpacket records
- Field 2 :: Subpacket number as per RFC-4880 and later.
- Field 3 :: Flags in hex. Currently the only two bits assigned
are 1, to indicate that the subpacket came from the
hashed part of the signature, and 2, to indicate the
subpacket was marked critical.
- Field 4 :: Length of the subpacket. Note that this is the
length of the subpacket, and not the length of field
5 below. Due to the need for %-encoding, the length
of field 5 may be up to 3x this value.
- Field 5 :: The subpacket data. Printable ASCII is shown as
ASCII, but other values are rendered as %XX where XX
is the hex value for the byte.
*** CFG - Configuration data
--list-config outputs information about the GnuPG configuration
for the benefit of frontends or other programs that call GnuPG.
There are several list-config items, all colon delimited like the
rest of the --with-colons output. The first field is always "cfg"
to indicate configuration information. The second field is one of
(with examples):
- version :: The third field contains the version of GnuPG.
: cfg:version:1.3.5
- pubkey :: The third field contains the public key algorithms
this version of GnuPG supports, separated by
semicolons. The algorithm numbers are as specified in
RFC-4880. Note that in contrast to the --status-fd
interface these are _not_ the Libgcrypt identifiers.
Using =pubkeyname= prints names instead of numbers.
: cfg:pubkey:1;2;3;16;17
- cipher :: The third field contains the symmetric ciphers this
version of GnuPG supports, separated by semicolons.
The cipher numbers are as specified in RFC-4880.
Using =ciphername= prints names instead of numbers.
: cfg:cipher:2;3;4;7;8;9;10
- digest :: The third field contains the digest (hash) algorithms
this version of GnuPG supports, separated by
semicolons. The digest numbers are as specified in
RFC-4880. Using =digestname= prints names instead of
numbers.
: cfg:digest:1;2;3;8;9;10
- compress :: The third field contains the compression algorithms
this version of GnuPG supports, separated by
semicolons. The algorithm numbers are as specified
in RFC-4880.
: cfg:compress:0;1;2;3
- group :: The third field contains the name of the group, and the
fourth field contains the values that the group expands
to, separated by semicolons.
For example, a group of:
: group mynames = paige 0x12345678 joe patti
would result in:
: cfg:group:mynames:patti;joe;0x12345678;paige
- curve :: The third field contains the curve names this version
of GnuPG supports, separated by semicolons. Using =curveoid= prints OIDs instead of numbers.
: cfg:curve:ed25519;nistp256;nistp384;nistp521
* Format of the --status-fd output
Every line is prefixed with "[GNUPG:] ", followed by a keyword with
the type of the status line and some arguments depending on the type
(maybe none); an application should always be prepared to see more
arguments in future versions.
** General status codes
*** NEWSIG [<signers_uid>]
Is issued right before a signature verification starts. This is
useful to define a context for parsing ERROR status messages.
arguments are currently defined. If SIGNERS_UID is given and is
not "-" this is the percent escape value of the OpenPGP Signer's
User ID signature sub-packet.
*** GOODSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good. For each signature only one
of the codes GOODSIG, BADSIG, EXPSIG, EXPKEYSIG, REVKEYSIG or
ERRSIG will be emitted. In the past they were used as a marker
for a new signature; new code should use the NEWSIG status
instead. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX
escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if
it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually
also be available for OpenPGP.
*** EXPSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good, but the signature is
expired. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX
escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if
it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually
also be available for OpenPGP.
*** EXPKEYSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good, but the signature was made
by an expired key. The username is the primary one encoded in
UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the
long keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and
might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
*** REVKEYSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good, but the signature was made
by a revoked key. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8
and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long
keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and might
eventually also beñ available for OpenPGP.
*** BADSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid has not been verified okay. The
username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The
fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if it is
available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually also be
available for OpenPGP.
*** ERRSIG <keyid> <pkalgo> <hashalgo> <sig_class> <time> <rc>
It was not possible to check the signature. This may be caused by
a missing public key or an unsupported algorithm. A RC of 4
indicates unknown algorithm, a 9 indicates a missing public
key. The other fields give more information about this signature.
sig_class is a 2 byte hex-value. The fingerprint may be used
instead of the keyid if it is available. This is the case with
gpgsm and might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
Note, that TIME may either be the number of seconds since Epoch or
an ISO 8601 string. The latter can be detected by the presence of
the letter 'T'.
*** VALIDSIG <args>
The args are:
- <fingerprint_in_hex>
- <sig_creation_date>
- <sig-timestamp>
- <expire-timestamp>
- <sig-version>
- <reserved>
- <pubkey-algo>
- <hash-algo>
- <sig-class>
- [ <primary-key-fpr> ]
This status indicates that the signature is cryptographically
valid. This is similar to GOODSIG, EXPSIG, EXPKEYSIG, or REVKEYSIG
(depending on the date and the state of the signature and signing
key) but has the fingerprint as the argument. Multiple status
lines (VALIDSIG and the other appropriate *SIG status) are emitted
for a valid signature. All arguments here are on one long line.
sig-timestamp is the signature creation time in seconds after the
epoch. expire-timestamp is the signature expiration time in
seconds after the epoch (zero means "does not
expire"). sig-version, pubkey-algo, hash-algo, and sig-class (a
2-byte hex value) are all straight from the signature packet.
PRIMARY-KEY-FPR is the fingerprint of the primary key or identical
to the first argument. This is useful to get back to the primary
key without running gpg again for this purpose.
The primary-key-fpr parameter is used for OpenPGP and not
available for CMS signatures. The sig-version as well as the sig
class is not defined for CMS and currently set to 0 and 00.
Note, that *-TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since
Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence
of the letter 'T'.
*** SIG_ID <radix64_string> <sig_creation_date> <sig-timestamp>
This is emitted only for signatures of class 0 or 1 which have
been verified okay. The string is a signature id and may be used
in applications to detect replay attacks of signed messages. Note
that only DLP algorithms give unique ids - others may yield
duplicated ones when they have been created in the same second.
Note, that SIG-TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since
Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence
of the letter 'T'.
*** ENC_TO <long_keyid> <keytype> <keylength>
The message is encrypted to this LONG_KEYID. KEYTYPE is the
numerical value of the public key algorithm or 0 if it is not
known, KEYLENGTH is the length of the key or 0 if it is not known
(which is currently always the case). Gpg prints this line
always; Gpgsm only if it knows the certificate.
*** BEGIN_DECRYPTION
Mark the start of the actual decryption process. This is also
emitted when in --list-only mode.
*** END_DECRYPTION
Mark the end of the actual decryption process. This are also
emitted when in --list-only mode.
*** DECRYPTION_INFO <mdc_method> <sym_algo>
Print information about the symmetric encryption algorithm and the
MDC method. This will be emitted even if the decryption fails.
*** DECRYPTION_FAILED
The symmetric decryption failed - one reason could be a wrong
passphrase for a symmetrical encrypted message.
*** DECRYPTION_OKAY
The decryption process succeeded. This means, that either the
correct secret key has been used or the correct passphrase for a
symmetric encrypted message was given. The program itself may
return an errorcode because it may not be possible to verify a
signature for some reasons.
*** SESSION_KEY <algo>:<hexdigits>
The session key used to decrypt the message. This message will
only be emitted if the option --show-session-key is used. The
format is suitable to be passed as value for the option
--override-session-key. It is not an indication that the
decryption will or has succeeded.
*** BEGIN_ENCRYPTION <mdc_method> <sym_algo>
Mark the start of the actual encryption process.
*** END_ENCRYPTION
Mark the end of the actual encryption process.
*** FILE_START <what> <filename>
Start processing a file <filename>. <what> indicates the performed
operation:
- 1 :: verify
- 2 :: encrypt
- 3 :: decrypt
*** FILE_DONE
Marks the end of a file processing which has been started
by FILE_START.
*** BEGIN_SIGNING
Mark the start of the actual signing process. This may be used as
an indication that all requested secret keys are ready for use.
*** ALREADY_SIGNED <long-keyid>
Warning: This is experimental and might be removed at any time.
*** SIG_CREATED <type> <pk_algo> <hash_algo> <class> <timestamp> <keyfpr>
A signature has been created using these parameters.
Values for type <type> are:
- D :: detached
- C :: cleartext
- S :: standard
(only the first character should be checked)
<class> are 2 hex digits with the OpenPGP signature class.
Note, that TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since Epoch
or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence of the
letter 'T'.
*** NOTATION_
There are actually three related status codes to convey notation
data:
- NOTATION_NAME <name>
- NOTATION_FLAGS <critical> <human_readable>
- NOTATION_DATA <string>
<name> and <string> are %XX escaped. The data may be split among
several NOTATION_DATA lines. NOTATION_FLAGS is emitted after
NOTATION_NAME and gives the critical and human readable flags;
the flag values are either 0 or 1.
*** POLICY_URL <string>
Note that URL in <string> is %XX escaped.
*** PLAINTEXT <format> <timestamp> <filename>
This indicates the format of the plaintext that is about to be
written. The format is a 1 byte hex code that shows the format of
the plaintext: 62 ('b') is binary data, 74 ('t') is text data with
no character set specified, and 75 ('u') is text data encoded in
the UTF-8 character set. The timestamp is in seconds since the
epoch. If a filename is available it gets printed as the third
argument, percent-escaped as usual.
*** PLAINTEXT_LENGTH <length>
This indicates the length of the plaintext that is about to be
written. Note that if the plaintext packet has partial length
encoding it is not possible to know the length ahead of time. In
that case, this status tag does not appear.
*** ATTRIBUTE <arguments>
The list or arguments are:
- <fpr>
- <octets>
- <type>
- <index>
- <count>
- <timestamp>
- <expiredate>
- <flags>
This is one long line issued for each attribute subpacket when an
attribute packet is seen during key listing. <fpr> is the
fingerprint of the key. <octets> is the length of the attribute
subpacket. <type> is the attribute type (e.g. 1 for an image).
<index> and <count> indicate that this is the N-th indexed
subpacket of count total subpackets in this attribute packet.
<timestamp> and <expiredate> are from the self-signature on the
attribute packet. If the attribute packet does not have a valid
self-signature, then the timestamp is 0. <flags> are a bitwise OR
of:
- 0x01 :: this attribute packet is a primary uid
- 0x02 :: this attribute packet is revoked
- 0x04 :: this attribute packet is expired
*** SIG_SUBPACKET <type> <flags> <len> <data>
This indicates that a signature subpacket was seen. The format is
the same as the "spk" record above.
** Key related
*** INV_RECP, INV_SGNR
The two similar status codes:
- INV_RECP <reason> <requested_recipient>
- INV_SGNR <reason> <requested_sender>
are issued for each unusable recipient/sender. The reasons codes
currently in use are:
- 0 :: No specific reason given
- 1 :: Not Found
- 2 :: Ambigious specification
- 3 :: Wrong key usage
- 4 :: Key revoked
- 5 :: Key expired
- 6 :: No CRL known
- 7 :: CRL too old
- 8 :: Policy mismatch
- 9 :: Not a secret key
- 10 :: Key not trusted
- 11 :: Missing certificate
- 12 :: Missing issuer certificate
- 13 :: Key disabled
- 14 :: Syntax error in specification
If no specific reason was given a previously emitted status code
KEY_CONSIDERED may be used to analyzed the problem.
Note that for historical reasons the INV_RECP status is also used
for gpgsm's SIGNER command where it relates to signer's of course.
Newer GnuPG versions are using INV_SGNR; applications should
ignore the INV_RECP during the sender's command processing once
they have seen an INV_SGNR. Different codes are used so that they
can be distinguish while doing an encrypt+sign operation.
*** NO_RECP <reserved>
Issued if no recipients are usable.
*** NO_SGNR <reserved>
Issued if no senders are usable.
*** KEY_CONSIDERED <fpr> <flags>
Issued to explian the lookup of a key. FPR is the hexified
fingerprint of the primary key. The bit values for FLAGS are:
- 1 :: The key has not been selected.
- 2 :: All subkeys of the key are expired or have been revoked.
*** KEYEXPIRED <expire-timestamp>
The key has expired. expire-timestamp is the expiration time in
seconds since Epoch. This status line is not very useful because
it will also be emitted for expired subkeys even if this subkey is
not used. To check whether a key used to sign a message has
expired, the EXPKEYSIG status line is to be used.
Note, that the TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since
Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence
of the letter 'T'.
*** KEYREVOKED
The used key has been revoked by its owner. No arguments yet.
*** NO_PUBKEY <long keyid>
The public key is not available
*** NO_SECKEY <long keyid>
The secret key is not available
*** KEY_CREATED <type> <fingerprint> [<handle>]
A key has been created. Values for <type> are:
- B :: primary and subkey
- P :: primary
- S :: subkey
The fingerprint is one of the primary key for type B and P and the
one of the subkey for S. Handle is an arbitrary non-whitespace
string used to match key parameters from batch key creation run.
*** KEY_NOT_CREATED [<handle>]
The key from batch run has not been created due to errors.
*** TRUST_
These are several similar status codes:
- TRUST_UNDEFINED <error_token>
- TRUST_NEVER <error_token>
- TRUST_MARGINAL [0 [<validation_model>]]
- TRUST_FULLY [0 [<validation_model>]]
- TRUST_ULTIMATE [0 [<validation_model>]]
For good signatures one of these status lines are emitted to
indicate the validity of the key used to create the signature.
The error token values are currently only emitted by gpgsm.
VALIDATION_MODEL describes the algorithm used to check the
validity of the key. The defaults are the standard Web of Trust
model for gpg and the the standard X.509 model for gpgsm. The
defined values are
- pgp :: The standard PGP WoT.
- shell :: The standard X.509 model.
- chain :: The chain model.
- steed :: The STEED model.
- tofu :: The TOFU model
Note that the term =TRUST_= in the status names is used for
historic reasons; we now speak of validity.
*** TOFU_USER <fingerprint_in_hex> <mbox>
This status identifies the key and the userid for all following
Tofu information. The fingerprint is the fingerprint of the
primary key and the mbox is in general the addr-spec part of the
userid encoded in UTF-8 and percent escaped.
*** TOFU_STATS <validity> <sign-count> 0 [<policy> [<tm1> <tm2>]]
Statistics for the current user id.
Values for VALIDITY are:
- 0 :: conflict
- 1 :: key without history
- 2 :: key with too little history
- 3 :: key with enough history for basic trust
- 4 :: key with a lot of history
Values for POLICY are:
- none :: No Policy set
- auto :: Policy is "auto"
- good :: Policy is "good"
- bad :: Policy is "bad"
- ask :: Policy is "ask"
- unknown :: Policy is not known.
TM1 gives the number of seconds since the the first messages was
verified. TM2 gives the number of seconds since the most recent
message was verified.
*** TOFU_STATS_SHORT <long_string>
Information about the TOFU binding for the signature.
Example: "15 signatures verified. 10 messages encrypted"
*** TOFU_STATS_LONG <long_string>
Information about the TOFU binding for the signature in verbose
format. The LONG_STRING is percent escaped.
Example: 'Verified 9 messages signed by "Werner Koch
(dist sig)" in the past 3 minutes, 40 seconds. The most
recent message was verified 4 seconds ago.'
*** PKA_TRUST_
This is is one:
- PKA_TRUST_GOOD <addr-spec>
- PKA_TRUST_BAD <addr-spec>
Depending on the outcome of the PKA check one of the above status
codes is emitted in addition to a =TRUST_*= status.
** Remote control
*** GET_BOOL, GET_LINE, GET_HIDDEN, GOT_IT
These status line are used with --command-fd for interactive
control of the process.
*** USERID_HINT <long main keyid> <string>
Give a hint about the user ID for a certain keyID.
*** NEED_PASSPHRASE <long keyid> <long main keyid> <keytype> <keylength>
Issued whenever a passphrase is needed. KEYTYPE is the numerical
value of the public key algorithm or 0 if this is not applicable,
KEYLENGTH is the length of the key or 0 if it is not known (this
is currently always the case).
*** NEED_PASSPHRASE_SYM <cipher_algo> <s2k_mode> <s2k_hash>
Issued whenever a passphrase for symmetric encryption is needed.
*** NEED_PASSPHRASE_PIN <card_type> <chvno> [<serialno>]
Issued whenever a PIN is requested to unlock a card.
*** MISSING_PASSPHRASE
No passphrase was supplied. An application which encounters this
message may want to stop parsing immediately because the next
message will probably be a BAD_PASSPHRASE. However, if the
application is a wrapper around the key edit menu functionality it
might not make sense to stop parsing but simply ignoring the
following BAD_PASSPHRASE.
*** BAD_PASSPHRASE <long keyid>
The supplied passphrase was wrong or not given. In the latter
case you may have seen a MISSING_PASSPHRASE.
*** GOOD_PASSPHRASE
The supplied passphrase was good and the secret key material
is therefore usable.
** Import/Export
*** IMPORT_CHECK <long keyid> <fingerprint> <user ID>
This status is emitted in interactive mode right before
the "import.okay" prompt.
*** IMPORTED <long keyid> <username>
The keyid and name of the signature just imported
*** IMPORT_OK <reason> [<fingerprint>]
The key with the primary key's FINGERPRINT has been imported.
REASON flags are:
- 0 :: Not actually changed
- 1 :: Entirely new key.
- 2 :: New user IDs
- 4 :: New signatures
- 8 :: New subkeys
- 16 :: Contains private key.
The flags may be ORed.
*** IMPORT_PROBLEM <reason> [<fingerprint>]
Issued for each import failure. Reason codes are:
- 0 :: No specific reason given.
- 1 :: Invalid Certificate.
- 2 :: Issuer Certificate missing.
- 3 :: Certificate Chain too long.
- 4 :: Error storing certificate.
*** IMPORT_RES <args>
Final statistics on import process (this is one long line). The
args are a list of unsigned numbers separated by white space:
- <count>
- <no_user_id>
- <imported>
- always 0 (formerly used for the number of RSA keys)
- <unchanged>
- <n_uids>
- <n_subk>
- <n_sigs>
- <n_revoc>
- <sec_read>
- <sec_imported>
- <sec_dups>
- <skipped_new_keys>
- <not_imported>
- <skipped_v3_keys>
*** EXPORTED <fingerprint>
The key with <fingerprint> has been exported. The fingerprint is
the fingerprint of the primary key even if the primary key has
been replaced by a stub key during secret key export.
*** EXPORT_RES <args>
Final statistics on export process (this is one long line). The
args are a list of unsigned numbers separated by white space:
- <count>
- <secret_count>
- <exported>
** Smartcard related
*** CARDCTRL <what> [<serialno>]
This is used to control smartcard operations. Defined values for
WHAT are:
- 1 :: Request insertion of a card. Serialnumber may be given
to request a specific card. Used by gpg 1.4 w/o
scdaemon
- 2 :: Request removal of a card. Used by gpg 1.4 w/o scdaemon.
- 3 :: Card with serialnumber detected
- 4 :: No card available
- 5 :: No card reader available
- 6 :: No card support available
- 7 :: Card is in termination state
*** SC_OP_FAILURE [<code>]
An operation on a smartcard definitely failed. Currently there is
no indication of the actual error code, but application should be
prepared to later accept more arguments. Defined values for
<code> are:
- 0 :: unspecified error (identically to a missing CODE)
- 1 :: canceled
- 2 :: bad PIN
*** SC_OP_SUCCESS
A smart card operaion succeeded. This status is only printed for
certain operation and is mostly useful to check whether a PIN
change really worked.
** Miscellaneous status codes
*** NODATA <what>
No data has been found. Codes for WHAT are:
- 1 :: No armored data.
- 2 :: Expected a packet but did not found one.
- 3 :: Invalid packet found, this may indicate a non OpenPGP
message.
- 4 :: Signature expected but not found
You may see more than one of these status lines.
*** UNEXPECTED <what>
Unexpected data has been encountered. Codes for WHAT are:
- 0 :: Not further specified
- 1 :: Corrupted message structure
*** TRUNCATED <maxno>
The output was truncated to MAXNO items. This status code is
issued for certain external requests.
*** ERROR <error location> <error code> [<more>]
This is a generic error status message, it might be followed by
error location specific data. <error code> and <error_location>
should not contain spaces. The error code is a either a string
commencing with a letter or such a string prefixed with a
numerical error code and an underscore; e.g.: "151011327_EOF".
*** WARNING <location> <error code> [<text>]
This is a generic warning status message, it might be followed by
error location specific data. <error code> and <location>
should not contain spaces. The error code is a either a string
commencing with a letter or such a string prefixed with a
numerical error code and an underscore; e.g.: "151011327_EOF".
*** SUCCESS [<location>]
Postive confirmation that an operation succeeded. It is used
similar to ISO-C's EXIT_SUCCESS. <location> is optional but if
given should not contain spaces. Used only with a few commands.
*** FAILURE <location> <error_code>
This is the counterpart to SUCCESS and used to indicate a program
failure. It is used similar to ISO-C's EXIT_FAILURE but allows
conveying more information, in particular a gpg-error error code.
That numerical error code may optionally have a suffix made of an
underscore and a string with an error symbol like "151011327_EOF".
A dash may be used instead of <location>.
*** BADARMOR
The ASCII armor is corrupted. No arguments yet.
*** DELETE_PROBLEM <reason_code>
Deleting a key failed. Reason codes are:
- 1 :: No such key
- 2 :: Must delete secret key first
- 3 :: Ambigious specification
- 4 :: Key is stored on a smartcard.
*** PROGRESS <what> <char> <cur> <total>
Used by the primegen and Public key functions to indicate
progress. <char> is the character displayed with no --status-fd
enabled, with the linefeed replaced by an 'X'. <cur> is the
current amount done and <total> is amount to be done; a <total> of
0 indicates that the total amount is not known. The condition
: TOTAL && CUR == TOTAL
may be used to detect the end of an operation.
Well known values for WHAT are:
- pk_dsa :: DSA key generation
- pk_elg :: Elgamal key generation
- primegen :: Prime generation
- need_entropy :: Waiting for new entropy in the RNG
- tick :: Generic tick without any special meaning - useful
for letting clients know that the server is still
working.
- starting_agent :: A gpg-agent was started because it is not
running as a daemon.
- learncard :: Send by the agent and gpgsm while learing
the data of a smartcard.
- card_busy :: A smartcard is still working
*** BACKUP_KEY_CREATED <fingerprint> <fname>
A backup of a key identified by <fingerprint> has been writte to
the file <fname>; <fname> is percent-escaped.
*** MOUNTPOINT <name>
<name> is a percent-plus escaped filename describing the
mountpoint for the current operation (e.g. used by "g13 --mount").
This may either be the specified mountpoint or one randomly
choosen by g13.
*** PINENTRY_LAUNCHED <pid>
This status line is emitted by gpg to notify a client that a
Pinentry has been launched. <pid> is the PID of the Pinentry. It
may be used to display a hint to the user but can't be used to
synchronize with Pinentry. Note that there is also an Assuan
inquiry line with the same name used internally or, if enabled,
send to the client instead of this status line. Such an inquiry
may be used to sync with Pinentry
** Obsolete status codes
*** SIGEXPIRED
Removed on 2011-02-04. This is deprecated in favor of KEYEXPIRED.
*** RSA_OR_IDEA
Obsolete. This status message used to be emitted for requests to
use the IDEA or RSA algorithms. It has been dropped from GnuPG
2.1 after the respective patents expired.
*** SHM_INFO, SHM_GET, SHM_GET_BOOL, SHM_GET_HIDDEN
These were used for the ancient shared memory based co-processing.
*** BEGIN_STREAM, END_STREAM
Used to issued by the experimental pipemode.
* Format of the --attribute-fd output
When --attribute-fd is set, during key listings (--list-keys,
--list-secret-keys) GnuPG dumps each attribute packet to the file
descriptor specified. --attribute-fd is intended for use with
--status-fd as part of the required information is carried on the
ATTRIBUTE status tag (see above).
The contents of the attribute data is specified by RFC 4880. For
convenience, here is the Photo ID format, as it is currently the
only attribute defined:
- Byte 0-1 :: The length of the image header. Due to a historical
accident (i.e. oops!) back in the NAI PGP days, this
is a little-endian number. Currently 16 (0x10 0x00).
- Byte 2 :: The image header version. Currently 0x01.
- Byte 3 :: Encoding format. 0x01 == JPEG.
- Byte 4-15 :: Reserved, and currently unused.
All other data after this header is raw image (JPEG) data.
* Layout of the TrustDB
The TrustDB is built from fixed length records, where the first byte
describes the record type. All numeric values are stored in network
byte order. The length of each record is 40 bytes. The first
record of the DB is always of type 1 and this is the only record of
this type.
The record types: directory(2), key(3), uid(4), pref(5), sigrec(6),
and shadow directory(8) are not anymore used by version 2 of the
TrustDB.
** Record type 0
Unused record or deleted, can be reused for any purpose. Such
records should in general not exist because deleted records are of
type 254 and kept in a linked list.
** Version info (RECTYPE_VER, 1)
Version information for this TrustDB. This is always the first
record of the DB and the only one of this type.
- 1 u8 :: Record type (value: 1).
- 3 byte :: Magic value ("gpg")
- 1 u8 :: TrustDB version (value: 2).
- 1 u8 :: =marginals=. How many marginal trusted keys are required.
- 1 u8 :: =completes=. How many completely trusted keys are
required.
- 1 u8 :: =max_cert_depth=. How deep is the WoT evaluated. Along
with =marginals= and =completes=, this value is used to
check whether the cached validity value from a [FIXME
dir] record can be used.
- 1 u8 :: =trust_model=
- 1 u8 :: =min_cert_level=
- 2 byte :: Not used
- 1 u32 :: =created=. Timestamp of trustdb creation.
- 1 u32 :: =nextcheck=. Timestamp of last modification which may
affect the validity of keys in the trustdb. This value
is checked against the validity timestamp in the dir
records.
- 1 u32 :: =reserved=. Not used.
- 1 u32 :: =reserved2=. Not used.
- 1 u32 :: =firstfree=. Number of the record with the head record
of the RECTYPE_FREE linked list.
- 1 u32 :: =reserved3=. Not used.
- 1 u32 :: =trusthashtbl=. Record number of the trusthashtable.
** Hash table (RECTYPE_HTBL, 10)
Due to the fact that we use fingerprints to lookup keys, we can
implement quick access by some simple hash methods, and avoid the
overhead of gdbm. A property of fingerprints is that they can be
used directly as hash values. What we use is a dynamic multilevel
architecture, which combines hash tables, record lists, and linked
lists.
This record is a hash table of 256 entries with the property that
all these records are stored consecutively to make one big
table. The hash value is simple the 1st, 2nd, ... byte of the
fingerprint (depending on the indirection level).
- 1 u8 :: Record type (value: 10).
- 1 u8 :: Reserved
- n u32 :: =recnum=. A table with the hash table items fitting into
this record. =n= depends on the record length:
$n=(reclen-2)/4$ which yields 9 for oure current record
length of 40 bytes.
The total number of hash table records to form the table is:
$m=(256+n-1)/n$. This is 29 for our record length of 40.
To look up a key we use the first byte of the fingerprint to get
the recnum from this hash table and then look up the addressed
record:
- If that record is another hash table, we use 2nd byte to index
that hash table and so on;
- if that record is a hash list, we walk all entries until we find
a matching one; or
- if that record is a key record, we compare the fingerprint to
decide whether it is the requested key;
** Hash list (RECTYPE_HLST, 11)
See hash table above on how it is used. It may also be used for
other purposes.
- 1 u8 :: Record type (value: 11).
- 1 u8 :: Reserved.
- 1 u32 :: =next=. Record number of the next hash list record or 0
if none.
- n u32 :: =rnum=. Array with record numbers to values. With
$n=(reclen-5)/5$ and our record length of 40, n is 7.
** Trust record (RECTYPE_TRUST, 12)
- 1 u8 :: Record type (value: 12).
- 1 u8 :: Reserved.
- 20 byte :: =fingerprint=.
- 1 u8 :: =ownertrust=.
- 1 u8 :: =depth=.
- 1 u8 :: =min_ownertrust=.
- 1 byte :: Not used.
- 1 u32 :: =validlist=.
- 10 byte :: Not used.
** Validity record (RECTYPE_VALID, 13)
- 1 u8 :: Record type (value: 13).
- 1 u8 :: Reserved.
- 20 byte :: =namehash=.
- 1 u8 :: =validity=
- 1 u32 :: =next=.
- 1 u8 :: =full_count=.
- 1 u8 :: =marginal_count=.
- 11 byte :: Not used.
** Free record (RECTYPE_FREE, 254)
All these records form a linked list of unused records in the TrustDB.
- 1 u8 :: Record type (value: 254)
- 1 u8 :: Reserved.
- 1 u32 :: =next=. Record number of the next rcord of this type.
The record number to the head of this linked list is
stored in the version info record.
* GNU extensions to the S2K algorithm
1 octet - S2K Usage: either 254 or 255.
1 octet - S2K Cipher Algo: 0
1 octet - S2K Specifier: 101
3 octets - "GNU"
1 octet - GNU S2K Extension Number.
If such a GNU extension is used neither an IV nor any kind of
checksum is used. The defined GNU S2K Extension Numbers are:
- 1 :: Do not store the secret part at all. No specific data
follows.
- 2 :: A stub to access smartcards. This data follows:
- One octet with the length of the following serial number.
- The serial number. Regardless of what the length octet
indicates no more than 16 octets are stored.
Note that gpg stores the GNU S2K Extension Number internally as an
S2K Specifier with an offset of 1000.
* Keyserver helper message format
The keyserver may be contacted by a Unix Domain socket or via TCP.
The format of a request is:
#+begin_example
command-tag
"Content-length:" digits
CRLF
#+end_example
Where command-tag is
#+begin_example
NOOP
GET <user-name>
PUT
DELETE <user-name>
#+end_example
The format of a response is:
#+begin_example
"GNUPG/1.0" status-code status-text
"Content-length:" digits
CRLF
#+end_example
followed by <digits> bytes of data
Status codes are:
- 1xx :: Informational - Request received, continuing process
- 2xx :: Success - The action was successfully received, understood,
and accepted
- 4xx :: Client Error - The request contains bad syntax or cannot be
fulfilled
- 5xx :: Server Error - The server failed to fulfill an apparently
valid request
* Object identifiers
OIDs below the GnuPG arc:
#+begin_example
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2 GnuPG
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.1 notation
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.1.1 pkaAddress
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.2 X.509 extensions
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.2.1 standaloneCertificate
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.2.2 wellKnownPrivateKey
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.12242973 invalid encoded OID
#+end_example
* Miscellaneous notes
** v3 fingerprints
For packet version 3 we calculate the keyids this way:
- RSA :: Low 64 bits of n
- ELGAMAL :: Build a v3 pubkey packet (with CTB 0x99) and
calculate a RMD160 hash value from it. This is used
as the fingerprint and the low 64 bits are the keyid.
** Simplified revocation certificates
Revocation certificates consist only of the signature packet;
"--import" knows how to handle this. The rationale behind it is to
keep them small.
** Documentation on HKP (the http keyserver protocol):
A minimalistic HTTP server on port 11371 recognizes a GET for
/pks/lookup. The standard http URL encoded query parameters are
this (always key=value):
- op=index (like pgp -kv), op=vindex (like pgp -kvv) and op=get (like
pgp -kxa)
- search=<stringlist>. This is a list of words that must occur in the key.
The words are delimited with space, points, @ and so on. The delimiters
are not searched for and the order of the words doesn't matter (but see
next option).
- exact=on. This switch tells the hkp server to only report exact matching
keys back. In this case the order and the "delimiters" are important.
- fingerprint=on. Also reports the fingerprints when used with 'index' or
'vindex'
The keyserver also recognizes http-POSTs to /pks/add. Use this to upload
keys.
A better way to do this would be a request like:
/pks/lookup/<gnupg_formatierte_user_id>?op=<operation>
This can be implemented using Hurd's translator mechanism.
However, I think the whole keyserver stuff has to be re-thought;
I have some ideas and probably create a white paper.
** Algorithm names for the "keygen.algo" prompt
When using a --command-fd controlled key generation or "addkey"
there is way to know the number to enter on the "keygen.algo"
prompt. The displayed numbers are for human reception and may
change with releases. To provide a stable way to enter a desired
algorithm choice the prompt also accepts predefined names for the
algorithms, which will not change.
| Name | No | Description |
|---------+----+---------------------------------|
| rsa+rsa | 1 | RSA and RSA (default) |
| dsa+elg | 2 | DSA and Elgamal |
| dsa | 3 | DSA (sign only) |
| rsa/s | 4 | RSA (sign only) |
| elg | 5 | Elgamal (encrypt only) |
| rsa/e | 6 | RSA (encrypt only) |
| dsa/* | 7 | DSA (set your own capabilities) |
| rsa/* | 8 | RSA (set your own capabilities) |
| ecc+ecc | 9 | ECC and ECC |
| ecc/s | 10 | ECC (sign only) |
| ecc/* | 11 | ECC (set your own capabilities) |
| ecc/e | 12 | ECC (encrypt only) |
| keygrip | 13 | Existing key |
If one of the "foo/*" names are used a "keygen.flags" prompt needs
to be answered as well. Instead of toggling the predefined flags,
it is also possible to set them direct: Use a "=" character
directly followed by a comination of "a" (for authentication), "s"
(for signing), or "c" (for certification).