paperkey

extract just the secret information out of OpenPGP secret keys

Description

A reasonable way to achieve a long term backup of OpenPGP (GnuPG, PGP, etc) keys is to print them out on paper. The reasoning behind this is that paper and ink has amazingly long retention qualities - far longer than the magnetic or optical means that are generally used to back up computer data.

Due to metadata and redundancy, OpenPGP secret keys are significantly larger than just the "secret bits". In fact, the secret key contains a complete copy of the public key. Since the public key generally doesn't need to be escrowed (most people have many copies of it on various keyservers, web pages, etc), only extracting the secret parts can be a real advantage.

Paperkey extracts just those secret bytes and prints them. To reconstruct, you re-enter those bytes (whether by hand or via OCR) and paperkey can use them to transform your existing public key into a secret key.

Upload more screenshots

Please help extend the collection of screenshots. Just make a screenshot and upload it here. You don't need to register or anything.

Upload a screenshot

Hint: upload an image here from your clipboard with Ctrl-V


Homepage

http://www.jabberwocky.com/software/paperkey/


Install this software package

If the package is available for the distribution you are currently using on your computer then install the software by clicking on…

Install paperkey