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Practical Assignment No. 4: Aim: Introduction To Gnupg Encryption System. Theory: Gnupg

GnuPG is a free and open source implementation of the OpenPGP standard that allows users to encrypt and sign data and communications with a versatile key management system. It provides support for encrypting emails and integrating encryption into operating systems like Linux. GnuPG uses public/private key encryption, where a file can be encrypted with the recipient's public key but requires both keys to decrypt. The private key is locked with a passphrase for additional security. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) was designed by Phil Zimmermann to provide security, privacy, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation for email through a combination of hashing, symmetric encryption and public key encryption using digital signatures. PGP became popular for its ability to

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49 views3 pages

Practical Assignment No. 4: Aim: Introduction To Gnupg Encryption System. Theory: Gnupg

GnuPG is a free and open source implementation of the OpenPGP standard that allows users to encrypt and sign data and communications with a versatile key management system. It provides support for encrypting emails and integrating encryption into operating systems like Linux. GnuPG uses public/private key encryption, where a file can be encrypted with the recipient's public key but requires both keys to decrypt. The private key is locked with a passphrase for additional security. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) was designed by Phil Zimmermann to provide security, privacy, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation for email through a combination of hashing, symmetric encryption and public key encryption using digital signatures. PGP became popular for its ability to

Uploaded by

Abhinav arora
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Abhinav Arora (08) 1714110101

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT NO. 4


Aim: Introduction to GnuPG encryption system.
Theory:

GnuPG
GnuPG is a complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard as defined by RFC4880 (also
known as PGP). GnuPG allows you to encrypt and sign your data and communications; it features a
versatile key management system, along with access modules for all kinds of public key directories.
GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for easy integration with other
applications. A wealth of frontend applications and libraries are available. GnuPG also provides support
for S/MIME and Secure Shell (ssh). GPG, or GnuPG, stands for GNU Privacy Guard. GPG is a different
implementation of the Open PGP standard and a strong alternative to Symantec’s official PGP software.

GPG is defined by RFC 4880 (the official name for the Open PGP standard). The GPG Project provides
the tools and libraries to allows users to interface with a GUI or command line to integrate encryption
with emails and operating systems like Linux.

GnuPG is an implementation of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), which is a form of public key/private key
encryption. The strength of the encryption comes from the fact that a file can be encrypted for a given
recipient using only the public key, yet both keys are needed in order to decrypt the file.

So the idea is to give your public key to your friends and colleagues, but keep the private key closely
guarded. With GnuPG the keys are associated with an ID consisting of a name, comment and e-mail
address. When specifying recipients you may use either the name or the e-mail address but due to the
complexity of dealing with the spaces in the names we will be using the e-mail address.

The private key is additionally locked with a passphrase which is required to access it. This adds an
additional level of security to prevent someone using your private key if they gain physical access to
both your computer and account.
Abhinav Arora (08) 1714110101

Installation
GnuPG can be downloaded from the GnuPG homepage and you should follow the instructions relating
to your own system. This page assumes you are using a Mac OS X or Linux based environment and
Windows users would have to adjust accordingly (in fact this page would be more appropriate reading).

For installation on a Mac the easiest method is to install Fink and then issue the following command in
your terminal:

If you get a message about not being in the sudoers file make sure to add your username into
/etc/sudoers using the root account. Many programs can be installed in this way with Fink and I highly
recommend it for anyone who enjoys the UNIX aspect of OS X.

Verify your installation by typing the following command and checking that a path is returned as
follows:

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)


PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) which is invented by Phil Zimmermann. It was designed to
provide all four aspects of security, i.e., privacy, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation in the
sending of email.

PGP uses a digital signature (a combination of hashing and public key encryption) to provide integrity,
authentication, and non-repudiation. PGP uses a combination of secret key encryption and public key
encryption to provide privacy. Therefore, we can say that the digital signature uses one hash function,
one secret key, and two private-public key pairs. PGP is an open source and freely available software
package for email security.

PGP provides authentication through the use of Digital Signature. It provides confidentiality through
the use of symmetric block encryption.

It provides compression by using the ZIP algorithm, and EMAIL compatibility using the radix-64
encoding scheme. PGP was designed to provide all four aspects of security, i.e., privacy, integrity,
authentication, and non-repudiation in the sending of email.

The popularity of PGP is based on two factors. The first is that the system was originally available as
freeware, and so spread rapidly among users who wanted an extra level of security for their email
messages. The second is that since PGP uses both symmetric encryption and public-key encryption, it
allows users who have never met to send encrypted messages to each other without exchanging
private encryption keys.

Pretty Good Privacy can be used to authenticate digital certificates and encrypt/decrypt texts, emails,
files, directories and whole disk partitions. Symantec, for example, offers PGP-based products such as
Abhinav Arora (08) 1714110101

Symantec File Share Encryption for encrypting files shared across a network and Symantec Endpoint
Encryption for full disk encryption on desktops, mobile devices and removable storage. In the case of
using PGP technology for files and drives instead of messages, the Symantec products allows users to
decrypt and re-encrypt data via a single sign-on.

Significance of Pretty Good Privacy


Sensitive information is always protected. It cannot be stolen or viewed by others on the internet. It
assures that the information that is sent or received was not modified in transmission and that files
were not changed without your knowledge.

Information can be shared securely with others including groups of users and entire departments. You
can be certain who the email is from and who it is for. PGP verifies the sender of the information to
ensure that the email was not intercepted by a third party. Your secure emails and messages cannot
be penetrated by hackers or infected by email attacks.

Others cannot recover sensitive messages or files once you have deleted them. PGP encryption
software is very easy to learn how to use. With virtually no training, users are able to learn how to use
it right away.

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