gpg experts?

[Darrin Chandler]

On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 07:44:05AM -0700, Jon M. Hanson wrote:
> Technomage wrote:
> > I am in need of some advice guys. I need to recover my old passphrase from my 
> > gpg keys. is this even doable or should I just revoke my current keys and 
> > start anew?
> >
> >   
>     I don't think it's possible. I'm afraid you're stuck with revoking.

Of course it's possible. It's a lot easier with the private keys in
hand. Just contact the NSA and see if you can borrow some of their
computers for a while. Ok, maybe it's not practical... ;)

I don't know what mechanisms are in place now, but I don't think you can
revoke at this point, either. Otherwise I can revoke your keys.

For normal use, none of this turns out to be an issue. Most people don't
usually bother with a formal trust heirarchy and use the "web of trust."
Heck, most people don't even bother doing that, and some don't even put
their keys on the keyservers.

FYI, those of you who sign every message and don't have your key on a
keyserver aren't accomplishing anything for the likes of us on this
list. Nobody has the slightest way of telling if it's really you with
any level of confidence. Maybe we should have mini key signing parties
at the meetings...

-- 
Darrin Chandler                   |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler at stilyagin.com          |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/darrin/  |