The-Learning-Documentation-Project

Encrypt a file to send to your firend/other person using gpg

Note : *If you Would like to know about generation and usage of* ssh/gpg *keys*. *please go to* ssh/gpg

1. Import your friends publice key and verify the key from global keyserers.

   1. Import Keys: import Keys using your friend KEY-ID or email or Real Name

      $ gpg –search-keys –keyserver keys.gnupg.net ‘KEY-ID’

      or

      $ gpg –search-keys –keyserver keys.gnupg.net ‘E-Mail ID’

      or

      $ gpg –search-keys –keyserver keys.gnupg.net ‘Real Name’

      or If your frineds gives his publices in Friend_Publice_key.gpg you can import using following command gpg –import Friend_Publice_key.gpg

2. Then Verify the Keys :

   Verify the successful import of your friend publice key by gpg --list-keys, then you have your friend’s Raksi Key.

     pub   4096R/AB2724A8 2017-12-03
     uid                  raksi (Raksi's test ID)
     sub   4096R/84RF55EE 2014-12-03 
   

3. Then Encrypt a file test.tx using your friend’s publice key (Where he can only decrypt this message with his own private key) and send it to him.

      gpg --encrypt --recipient raksi a.txt
   
      gpg: 84RF55EE: There is no assurance this key belongs to the named user
   
      pub  2048R/84RF55EE 2012-12-03 raksi (Raksi's test ID)
     Primary key fingerprint: FF32 7764 A0AE 1E85 AC4B  C2F7 8AED B292 F2B7 42A8
     Subkey fingerprint: D6A5 7107 77C8 6845 2F86  765C EEED DD85 84RF 55EE
   
     It is NOT certain that the key belongs to the person named
     in the user ID.  If you *really* know what you are doing,
     you may answer the next question with yes.
   
     Use this key anyway? (y/N) y 1. A file `test.txt.pgp` will be created with some binary data. If you dont want it to be in binary format , you can choose to have in ASCII format by using the `gpg --encrypt --armor --recipient raksi test.txt` which creates `test.txt.gpg` having ASCII values.
   

   1. Send this test.txt.gpg file to your firend by any means, preferably use end-to-end encrypted channels (it can be through e-mail, chat or etc).

4. Decrypt a file (by your friend) : After receiving from your, into a plain text test.txt, human readable file.

    gpg --decrypt test.txt.gpg > test.txt
   

   1. This command uses his(your friend’s/other-persons) private keys to decrypt to a simple, human readable file test.txt

---

---

Encrypting A file using Openssl -aes-256 : With password

openssl aes-256 based encryption of a folder/file : Which doesn’t need any keys to be generated. It just needs a password for encryption, whic is a password based encryption.

1. For Open-SSL encryption : Issue the following command in your termianl.

     tar cz my_folder/ | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -e > encrypted.tar.gz.enc
   

Note : Here tar and czis for making a folder(my_folder/) or a file to compress and apply open-ssl for encrypting a compressed file using aes-256 algoritham to an output encrypted file as encrypted.tar.gz.enc.

Note : Here my_folder/ can be a folder or a simple file as example.txt.

1. After issuing the above command, then the system prompts for password with which the file is to be protected by encrypting, the output dialogues includes in following way:

      tar: Old option 'g' requires an argument.
      Try 'tar --help' or 'tar --usage' for more information.
      enter aes-256-cbc encryption password:
      Verifying - enter aes-256-cbc encryption password:
   

2. For OpenSSL Decryption:

     openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in encrypted.tar.gz.enc | tar xz
   

3. Enter the password(used while encrypting the same file) when its prompts for it. Then the file is decrypted.

More source regarding Open-ssl encryption at:

https://zaiste.net/creating_password_protected_gzip_files_from_command_line/

Note : Its better to choose gpg encryption over openssl -aes-256 because of high secure 4096 encryption in gpg using two different keys(such as public and private keys for encryption and decryption respectively)

This site is open source. Improve this page.