PGP Sample Session

This is a PGP sample session. I begin by aliasing the pgp command, where "grumpy () %" is my workstation prompt:

grumpy (9) % alias pgp /usr/local/apps/pgp/bin/pgp

Generally the pgp commands are one line long, although additional user input such as a pass phrase is required for key generation and for reading an encrypted message. If you are running pgp while viewing this message it should be fairly clear what parts of the text below are input by the user. There are seven commands echoed here. They are:

Key generation session
Signing your own key session
List the contents of my public key ring
Adding someone's key to your key ring
Send an encrypted, authenticated message
Send my newly created pgp public key to the Networking and Security group
Read an encrypted message you have received

Key generation session

grumpy (10) % pgp -kg
ld.so: warning: /usr/lib/libc.so.1.8.1 has older revision than expected 9
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1995/04/04 18:36 GMT
Pick your RSA key size:
    1)   512 bits- Low commercial grade, fast but less secure
    2)   768 bits- High commercial grade, medium speed, good security
    3)  1024 bits- "Military" grade, slow, highest security
Choose 1, 2, or 3, or enter desired number of bits: 2
Generating an RSA key with a 768-bit modulus.
 
You need a user ID for your public key.  The desired form for this
user ID is your name, followed by your E-mail address enclosed in
<angle brackets>, if you have an E-mail address.
For example:  John Q. Smith <12345.6789@compuserve.com>
Enter a user ID for your public key: 
Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr 
 
You need a pass phrase to protect your RSA secret key.
Your pass phrase can be any sentence or phrase and may have many
words, spaces, punctuation, or any other printable characters.
 
Enter pass phrase: 
Enter same pass phrase again: 
Note that key generation is a lengthy process.
 
We need to generate 56 random bits.  This is done by measuring the
time intervals between your keystrokes.  Please enter some random text
on your keyboard until you hear the beep:
   0 * -Enough, thank you.
..............................**** .........**** 
Key generation completed.

Signing your own key session

grumpy (11) % pgp -ks Nancy -u Nancy
ld.so: warning: /usr/lib/libc.so.1.8.1 has older revision than expected 9
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1995/04/04 18:44 GMT
 
Looking for key for user 'Nancy':
 
Key for user ID: Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr 
768-bit key, Key ID F2E10745, created 1995/04/04
          Key fingerprint =  49 98 BC 9A 14 8C 7E 19  F9 D6 75 EA 5D 36 18 BF 
 
 
READ CAREFULLY:  Based on your own direct first-hand knowledge, are
you absolutely certain that you are prepared to solemnly certify that
the above public key actually belongs to the user specified by the
above user ID (y/N)? y
 
You need a pass phrase to unlock your RSA secret key. 
Key for user ID "Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr "
 
Enter pass phrase: Pass phrase is good.  Just a moment....
Key signature certificate added.

List the contents of my public key ring

grumpy (12) % pgp -kv
ld.so: warning: /usr/lib/libc.so.1.8.1 has older revision than expected 9
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1995/04/04 18:47 GMT
 
Key ring: '/users/us/wilkinsn/.pgp/pubring.pgp'
Type bits/keyID    Date       User ID
pub   768/F2E10745 1995/04/04 Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr 
pub  1024/0DBF906D 1994/08/27 Jeffrey I. Schiller 
pub   512/4D0C4EE1 1992/09/10 Jeffrey I. Schiller 
pub  1024/0778338D 1993/09/17 Philip L. Dubois 
pub  1024/FBBB8AB1 1994/05/07 Colin Plumb 
pub  1024/C7A966DD 1993/05/21 Philip R. Zimmermann 
pub   709/C1B06AF1 1992/09/25 Derek Atkins 
pub  1024/8DE722D9 1992/07/22 Branko Lankester  
pub  1024/9D997D47 1992/08/02 Peter Gutmann 
pub  1019/7D63A5C5 1994/07/04 Hal Abelson 
pub   512/547E7A5D 1995/01/31 test
11 matching keys found.

Adding someone's key to your key ring

Connect to ftp://ftp.sdsc.edu/pub/security/pgp-keys and copy desired key. I got Tom Hutton's.

grumpy (15) % pgp -ka hutton@sdsc.edu.asc
ld.so: warning: /usr/lib/libc.so.1.8.1 has older revision than expected 9
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1995/04/04 18:51 GMT
 
Looking for new keys...
pub  1024/32BE1B51 1993/01/02  Thomas E. Hutton 
 
Checking signatures...
pub  1024/32BE1B51 1993/01/02 Thomas E. Hutton 
sig!      0DBF906D 1995/02/21  Jeffrey I. Schiller 
sig!      32BE1B51 1995/01/27  Thomas E. Hutton 
sig!      32BE1B51 1995/03/15  Thomas E. Hutton 
sig!      0DBF906D 1995/02/21  Jeffrey I. Schiller 
sig!      32BE1B51 1995/03/15  Thomas E. Hutton 
sig!      0DBF906D 1995/02/21  Jeffrey I. Schiller 
 
 
Keyfile contains:
   1 new key(s)
 
One or more of the new keys are not fully certified.
Do you want to certify any of these keys yourself (y/N)? n

Now I'm ready to send an encrypted, authenticated message to Tom.

grumpy (18) % pgp -feast Thomas E. -u Nancy < message | mail hutton@sdsc.edu
ld.so: warning: /usr/lib/libc.so.1.8.1 has older revision than expected 9
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1995/04/04 18:56 GMT
 
You need a pass phrase to unlock your RSA secret key. 
Key for user ID "Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr "
 
Enter pass phrase: 
Pass phrase is good.  
Key for user ID: Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr 
768-bit key, Key ID F2E10745, created 1995/04/04
Just a moment....
Key for user ID: Thomas E. Hutton 
1024-bit key, Key ID 32BE1B51, created 1993/01/02
Also known as: Thomas E. Hutton 
Also known as: Thomas E. Hutton 
 
WARNING:  Because this public key is not certified with a trusted
signature, it is not known with high confidence that this public key
actually belongs to: "Thomas E. Hutton ".
 
Key for user ID: Thomas E. Hutton 
1024-bit key, Key ID 32BE1B51, created 1993/01/02
Also known as: Thomas E. Hutton 
Also known as: Thomas E. Hutton

To send my newly created pgp public key to the Networking and Security group for placement in the anonymous ftp area, I must first extract an ascii copy of my public key from my public key ring, calling it wilkinsn@sdsc.edu.asc:

grumpy (39) % pgp -kxa Nancy wilkinsn@sdsc.edu.asc .pgp/pubring.pgp
ld.so: warning: /usr/lib/libc.so.1.8.1 has older revision than expected 9
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1995/04/04 19:08 GMT
 
Extracting from key ring: '.pgp/pubring.pgp', userid "Nancy".
 
Key for user ID: Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr 
768-bit key, Key ID F2E10745, created 1995/04/04
 
Transport armor file: wilkinsn@sdsc.edu.asc
 
Key extracted to file 'wilkinsn@sdsc.edu.asc'.

Then I mail the extracted file off:

grumpy (41) % mail pgp_sign@sdsc.edu
Subject: add
~r wilkinsn@sdsc.edu.asc
"wilkinsn@sdsc.edu.asc" 11/468
.
Cc:

To read an encrypted message you have received, first save the message to a file. I called it pgp.file. Then run pgp on the file:

grumpy (20) % pgp -m pgp.file
Pretty Good Privacy(tm) 2.6.2 - Public-key encryption for the masses.
(c) 1990-1994 Philip Zimmermann, Phil's Pretty Good Software. 11 Oct 94
Uses the RSAREF(tm) Toolkit, which is copyright RSA Data Security, Inc.
Distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Export of this software may be restricted by the U.S. government.
Current time: 1997/08/04 18:41 GMT
 
File is encrypted.  Secret key is required to read it. 
Key for user ID: Nancy R. Wilkins-Diehr 
768-bit key, Key ID F2E10745, created 1995/04/04
 
You need a pass phrase to unlock your RSA secret key. 
Enter pass phrase: Pass phrase is good.  Just a moment......
 
Plaintext message follows...
------------------------------
The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) has received a $1.9 million,
18-month award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
to implement, optimize, and evaluate defense-related applications on a new
kind of supercomputer, the Tera MTA. UCSD and the San Diego Supercomputer
Center (SDSC) will lead a multi-partner research team that includes The
Boeing Company, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Sanders (a Lockheed Martin Company), the Naval
Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, and Tera Computer Company.
Save this file permanently (y/N)? n


For more information contact support@sdsc.edu