Struggling with GnuPG private keys (lemmy.ml)

submitted 9 months ago by feoh@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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So, years ago I tried PGP/GPG and put my key up on the public keyservers.

And then promptly lost the private key data. Lather, rinse, repeat, and now there are like 5 old GPG/PGP identities for me up there that are gone forever and can't be revoked.

So, it's 2024, and I think "I have a NAS I do regular backups and test restores on. Surely I can keep my private key data safe and secure now".

So I get GPG going, create my keys, and then, not knowing any better? copy my entire $HOME/.gnupg directory to my NAS.

The goal here is for me to be able to use the same private key across all the machines I use. There are several.

But when I copy down that directory, GPG refuses to "see" it. gpg --list-secret-keys prints - Nothing.

Is there a better way to keep my key in sync across all my machines? I'd rather not use keybase if possible, they give me the willies after tainting themselves with cryptocurrency and being bought.
Assuming there isn't, what am I doing wrong with my ~/.gnupg directory?

Thanks in advance!

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[-] lemmyuser30@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

Why not just export the secret key to the NAS and then import it on whatever device needs it? No reason to copy and paste the whole directory to each machine.

[-] feoh@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago

Yup that's the solution I went with in the end analysis. Just use the exported text file copies of my keys and I'm good to go :)

this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024

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