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Struggling with GnuPG private keys (lemmy.ml)

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

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] Lemmchen@feddit.de 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/481939/how-to-export-a-gpg-private-key-and-public-key-to-a-file

Does this help?

[–] feoh@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hey I just want to thank you for this. It did indeed do exactly what I wanted! I think in the past when I'd tried to export my secret key I musn't have used the right parameters because I could never import it, but when I follow this guide I can!

So now I can just store plaintext private and public keys on my private NAS and import them on any machine where they're needed and I'm good to go!

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Good old internet anonymous tech support. Love to see it.