GnuPG Details
This is the DETAILS file for GnuPG which specifies some internals and parts of the external API for GPG and GPGSM.
Table of Contents
- 1 Format of the colon listings
- 1.1 Description of the fields
- 1.1.1 Field 1 - Type of record
- 1.1.2 Field 2 - Validity
- 1.1.3 Field 3 - Key length
- 1.1.4 Field 4 - Public key algorithm
- 1.1.5 Field 5 - KeyID
- 1.1.6 Field 6 - Creation date
- 1.1.7 Field 7 - Expiration date
- 1.1.8 Field 8 - Certificate S/N, UID hash, trust signature info
- 1.1.9 Field 9 - Ownertrust
- 1.1.10 Field 10 - User-ID
- 1.1.11 Field 11 - Signature class
- 1.1.12 Field 12 - Key capabilities
- 1.1.13 Field 13 - Issuer certificate fingerprint or other info
- 1.1.14 Field 14 - Flag field
- 1.1.15 Field 15 - S/N of a token
- 1.1.16 Field 16 - Hash algorithm
- 1.2 Special fields
- 1.1 Description of the fields
- 2 Format of the –status-fd output
- 2.1 General status codes
- 2.1.1 NEWSIG
- 2.1.2 GOODSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
- 2.1.3 EXPSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
- 2.1.4 EXPKEYSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
- 2.1.5 REVKEYSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
- 2.1.6 BADSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
- 2.1.7 ERRSIG <keyid> <pkalgo> <hashalgo> <sig_class> <time> <rc>
- 2.1.8 VALIDSIG <args>
- 2.1.9 SIG_ID <radix64_string> <sig_creation_date> <sig-timestamp>
- 2.1.10 ENC_TO <long_keyid> <keytype> <keylength>
- 2.1.11 BEGIN_DECRYPTION
- 2.1.12 END_DECRYPTION
- 2.1.13 DECRYPTION_INFO <mdc_method> <sym_algo>
- 2.1.14 DECRYPTION_FAILED
- 2.1.15 DECRYPTION_OKAY
- 2.1.16 SESSION_KEY <algo>:<hexdigits>
- 2.1.17 BEGIN_ENCRYPTION <mdc_method> <sym_algo>
- 2.1.18 END_ENCRYPTION
- 2.1.19 FILE_START <what> <filename>
- 2.1.20 FILE_DONE
- 2.1.21 BEGIN_SIGNING
- 2.1.22 ALREADY_SIGNED <long-keyid>
- 2.1.23 SIG_CREATED <type> <pk_algo> <hash_algo> <class> <timestamp> <keyfpr>
- 2.1.24 NOTATION_
- 2.1.25 POLICY_URL <string>
- 2.1.26 PLAINTEXT <format> <timestamp> <filename>
- 2.1.27 PLAINTEXT_LENGTH <length>
- 2.1.28 ATTRIBUTE <arguments>
- 2.1.29 SIG_SUBPACKET <type> <flags> <len> <data>
- 2.2 Key related
- 2.2.1 INV_RECP, INV_SGNR
- 2.2.2 NO_RECP <reserved>
- 2.2.3 NO_SGNR <reserved>
- 2.2.4 KEYEXPIRED <expire-timestamp>
- 2.2.5 KEYREVOKED
- 2.2.6 NO_PUBKEY <long keyid>
- 2.2.7 NO_SECKEY <long keyid>
- 2.2.8 KEY_CREATED <type> <fingerprint> [<handle>]
- 2.2.9 KEY_NOT_CREATED [<handle>]
- 2.2.10 TRUST_
- 2.2.11 PKA_TRUST_
- 2.3 Remote control
- 2.3.1 GET_BOOL, GET_LINE, GET_HIDDEN, GOT_IT
- 2.3.2 USERID_HINT <long main keyid> <string>
- 2.3.3 NEED_PASSPHRASE <long keyid> <long main keyid> <keytype> <keylength>
- 2.3.4 NEED_PASSPHRASE_SYM <cipher_algo> <s2k_mode> <s2k_hash>
- 2.3.5 NEED_PASSPHRASE_PIN <card_type> <chvno> [<serialno>]
- 2.3.6 MISSING_PASSPHRASE
- 2.3.7 BAD_PASSPHRASE <long keyid>
- 2.3.8 GOOD_PASSPHRASE
- 2.4 Import/Export
- 2.5 Smartcard related
- 2.6 Miscellaneous status codes
- 2.6.1 NODATA <what>
- 2.6.2 UNEXPECTED <what>
- 2.6.3 TRUNCATED <maxno>
- 2.6.4 ERROR <error location> <error code> [<more>]
- 2.6.5 SUCCESS [<location>]
- 2.6.6 BADARMOR
- 2.6.7 DELETE_PROBLEM <reason_code>
- 2.6.8 PROGRESS <what> <char> <cur> <total>
- 2.6.9 BACKUP_KEY_CREATED <fingerprint> <fname>
- 2.6.10 MOUNTPOINT <name>
- 2.6.11 PINENTRY_LAUNCHED <pid>
- 2.7 Obsolete status codes
- 2.1 General status codes
- 3 Format of the –attribute-fd output
- 4 Unattended key generation
- 5 Layout of the TrustDB
- 6 GNU extensions to the S2K algorithm
- 7 Keyserver helper message format
- 8 Object identifiers
- 9 Miscellaneous notes
1 Format of the colon listings
The format is a based on colon separated record, each recods starts with a tag string and extends to the end of the line. Here is an example:
$ gpg --with-colons --list-keys \
--with-fingerprint --with-fingerprint wk@gnupg.org
pub:f:1024:17:6C7EE1B8621CC013:899817715:1055898235::m:::scESC:
fpr:::::::::ECAF7590EB3443B5C7CF3ACB6C7EE1B8621CC013:
uid:f::::::::Werner Koch <wk@g10code.com>:
uid:f::::::::Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org>:
sub:f:1536:16:06AD222CADF6A6E1:919537416:1036177416:::::e:
fpr:::::::::CF8BCC4B18DE08FCD8A1615906AD222CADF6A6E1:
sub:r:1536:20:5CE086B5B5A18FF4:899817788:1025961788:::::esc:
fpr:::::::::AB059359A3B81F410FCFF97F5CE086B5B5A18FF4:
The double --with-fingerprint prints the fingerprint for the subkeys
too. Old versions of gpg used a lighly different format and required
the use of the option --fixed-list-mode to conform to format
described here.
1.1 Description of the fields
1.1.1 Field 1 - Type of record
- pub
- Public key
- crt
- X.509 certificate
- crs
- X.509 certificate and private key available
- sub
- Subkey (secondary key)
- sec
- Secret key
- ssb
- Secret subkey (secondary key)
- uid
- User id (only field 10 is used).
- uat
- User attribute (same as user id except for field 10).
- sig
- Signature
- rev
- Revocation signature
- fpr
- Fingerprint (fingerprint is in field 10)
- pkd
- Public key data [*]
- grp
- Keygrip
- rvk
- Revocation key
- tru
- Trust database information [*]
- spk
- Signature subpacket [*]
- cfg
- Configuration data [*]
Records marked with an asterisk are described at *Special fields.
1.1.2 Field 2 - Validity
This is a letter describing the computed validity of a key. Currently this is a single letter, but be prepared that additional information may follow in some future versions. Note that GnuPG < 2.1 does not set this field for secret key listings.
- o
- Unknown (this key is new to the system)
- i
- The key is invalid (e.g. due to a missing self-signature)
- d
- The key has been disabled (deprecated - use the 'D' in field 12 instead)
- r
- The key has been revoked
- e
- The key has expired
- -
- Unknown validity (i.e. no value assigned)
- q
- Undefined validity. '-' and 'q' may safely be treated as the same value for most purposes
- n
- The key is not valid
- m
- The key is marginal valid.
- f
- The key is fully valid
- u
- The key is ultimately valid. This often means that the secret key is available, but any key may be marked as ultimately valid.
- w
- The key has a well known private part.
- s
- The key has special validity. This means that it might be self-signed and expected to be used in the STEED sytem.
If the validity information is given for a UID or UAT record, it describes the validity calculated based on this user ID. If given for a key record it describes the validity taken from the best rated user ID.
For X.509 certificates a 'u' is used for a trusted root certificate (i.e. for the trust anchor) and an 'f' for all other valid certificates.
1.1.3 Field 3 - Key length
The length of key in bits.
1.1.4 Field 4 - Public key algorithm
The values here are those from the OpenPGP specs or if they are greather than 255 the algorithm ids as used by Libgcrypt.
1.1.5 Field 5 - KeyID
This is the 64 bit keyid as specified by OpenPGP and the last 64 bit of the SHA-1 fingerprint of an X.509 certifciate.
1.1.6 Field 6 - Creation date
The creation date of the key is given in UTC. For UID and UAT
records, this is used for the self-signature date. Note that the
date is usally printed in seconds since epoch, however, we are
migrating to an ISO 8601 format (e.g. "19660205T091500"). This is
currently only relevant for X.509. A simple way to detect the new
format is to scan for the 'T'. Note that old versions of gpg
without using the --fixed-list-mode option used a "yyyy-mm-tt"
format.
1.1.7 Field 7 - Expiration date
Key or UID/UAT expiration date or empty if it does not expire.
1.1.8 Field 8 - Certificate S/N, UID hash, trust signature info
Used for serial number in crt records. For UID and UAT records, this is a hash of the user ID contents used to represent that exact user ID. For trust signatures, this is the trust depth seperated by the trust value by a space.
1.1.9 Field 9 - Ownertrust
This is only used on primary keys. This is a single letter, but be prepared that additional information may follow in future versions. For trust signatures with a regular expression, this is the regular expression value, quoted as in field 10.
1.1.10 Field 10 - User-ID
The value is quoted like a C string to avoid control characters
(the colon is quoted \x3a). For a "pub" record this field is
not used on –fixed-list-mode. A UAT record puts the attribute
subpacket count here, a space, and then the total attribute
subpacket size. In gpgsm the issuer name comes here. A FPR
record stores the fingerprint here. The fingerprint of a
revocation key is stored here.
1.1.11 Field 11 - Signature class
Signature class as per RFC-4880. This is a 2 digit hexnumber followed by either the letter 'x' for an exportable signature or the letter 'l' for a local-only signature. The class byte of an revocation key is also given here, 'x' and 'l' is used the same way. This field if not used for X.509.
1.1.12 Field 12 - Key capabilities
The defined capabilities are:
- e
- Encrypt
- s
- Sign
- c
- Certify
- a
- Authentication
- ?
- Unknown capability
A key may have any combination of them in any order. In addition to these letters, the primary key has uppercase versions of the letters to denote the usable capabilities of the entire key, and a potential letter 'D' to indicate a disabled key.
1.1.13 Field 13 - Issuer certificate fingerprint or other info
Used in FPR records for S/MIME keys to store the fingerprint of the issuer certificate. This is useful to build the certificate path based on certificates stored in the local key database it is only filled if the issuer certificate is available. The root has been reached if this is the same string as the fingerprint. The advantage of using this value is that it is guaranteed to have been been build by the same lookup algorithm as gpgsm uses.
For "uid" records this field lists the preferences in the same way gpg's –edit-key menu does.
For "sig" records, this is the fingerprint of the key that issued the signature. Note that this is only filled in if the signature verified correctly. Note also that for various technical reasons, this fingerprint is only available if –no-sig-cache is used.
1.1.14 Field 14 - Flag field
Flag field used in the –edit menu output
1.1.15 Field 15 - S/N of a token
Used in sec/sbb to print the serial number of a token (internal protect mode 1002) or a '#' if that key is a simple stub (internal protect mode 1001)
1.1.16 Field 16 - Hash algorithm
For sig records, this is the used hash algorithm. For example: 2 = SHA-1, 8 = SHA-256.
1.2 Special fields
1.2.1 PKD - Public key data
If field 1 has the tag "pkd", a listing looks like this:
pkd:0:1024:B665B1435F4C2 .... FF26ABB:
! ! !-- the value
! !------ for information number of bits in the value
!--------- index (eg. DSA goes from 0 to 3: p,q,g,y)
1.2.2 TRU - Trust database information
Example for a "tru" trust base record:
tru:o:0:1166697654:1:3:1:5
- Field 2
- Reason for staleness of trust. If this field is
empty, then the trustdb is not stale. This field may
have multiple flags in it:
- o
- Trustdb is old
- t
- Trustdb was built with a different trust model than the one we are using now.
- Field 3
- Trust model
- 0
- Classic trust model, as used in PGP 2.x.
- 1
- PGP trust model, as used in PGP 6 and later. This is the same as the classic trust model, except for the addition of trust signatures.
GnuPG before version 1.4 used the classic trust model by default. GnuPG 1.4 and later uses the PGP trust model by default.
- Field 4
- Date trustdb was created in seconds since Epoch.
- Field 5
- Date trustdb will expire in seconds since Epoch.
- Field 6
- Number of marginally trusted users to introduce a new key signer (gpg's option –marginals-needed).
- Field 7
- Number of completely trusted users to introduce a new key signer. (gpg's option –completes-needed)
- Field 8
- Maximum depth of a certification chain. (gpg's option –max-cert-depth)
1.2.3 SPK - Signature subpacket records
- Field 2
- Subpacket number as per RFC-4880 and later.
- Field 3
- Flags in hex. Currently the only two bits assigned are 1, to indicate that the subpacket came from the hashed part of the signature, and 2, to indicate the subpacket was marked critical.
- Field 4
- Length of the subpacket. Note that this is the length of the subpacket, and not the length of field 5 below. Due to the need for %-encoding, the length of field 5 may be up to 3x this value.
- Field 5
- The subpacket data. Printable ASCII is shown as ASCII, but other values are rendered as %XX where XX is the hex value for the byte.
1.2.4 CFG - Configuration data
–list-config outputs information about the GnuPG configuration for the benefit of frontends or other programs that call GnuPG. There are several list-config items, all colon delimited like the rest of the –with-colons output. The first field is always "cfg" to indicate configuration information. The second field is one of (with examples):
- version
- The third field contains the version of GnuPG.
cfg:version:1.3.5
- pubkey
- The third field contains the public key algorithms
this version of GnuPG supports, separated by
semicolons. The algorithm numbers are as specified in
RFC-4880. Note that in contrast to the –status-fd
interface these are not the Libgcrypt identifiers.
cfg:pubkey:1;2;3;16;17
- cipher
- The third field contains the symmetric ciphers this
version of GnuPG supports, separated by semicolons.
The cipher numbers are as specified in RFC-4880.
cfg:cipher:2;3;4;7;8;9;10
- digest
- The third field contains the digest (hash) algorithms
this version of GnuPG supports, separated by
semicolons. The digest numbers are as specified in
RFC-4880.
cfg:digest:1;2;3;8;9;10
- compress
- The third field contains the compression algorithms
this version of GnuPG supports, separated by
semicolons. The algorithm numbers are as specified
in RFC-4880.
cfg:compress:0;1;2;3
- group
- The third field contains the name of the group, and the
fourth field contains the values that the group expands
to, separated by semicolons.
For example, a group of:
group mynames = paige 0x12345678 joe patti
would result in:
cfg:group:mynames:patti;joe;0x12345678;paige
2 Format of the –status-fd output
Every line is prefixed with "[GNUPG:] ", followed by a keyword with the type of the status line and some arguments depending on the type (maybe none); an application should always be prepared to see more arguments in future versions.
2.1 General status codes
2.1.1 NEWSIG
May be issued right before a signature verification starts. This is useful to define a context for parsing ERROR status messages. No arguments are currently defined.
2.1.2 GOODSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good. For each signature only one of the codes GOODSIG, BADSIG, EXPSIG, EXPKEYSIG, REVKEYSIG or ERRSIG will be emitted. In the past they were used as a marker for a new signature; new code should use the NEWSIG status instead. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
2.1.3 EXPSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good, but the signature is expired. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
2.1.4 EXPKEYSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good, but the signature was made by an expired key. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
2.1.5 REVKEYSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid is good, but the signature was made by a revoked key. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually also beñ available for OpenPGP.
2.1.6 BADSIG <long_keyid_or_fpr> <username>
The signature with the keyid has not been verified okay. The username is the primary one encoded in UTF-8 and %XX escaped. The fingerprint may be used instead of the long keyid if it is available. This is the case with CMS and might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
2.1.7 ERRSIG <keyid> <pkalgo> <hashalgo> <sig_class> <time> <rc>
It was not possible to check the signature. This may be caused by a missing public key or an unsupported algorithm. A RC of 4 indicates unknown algorithm, a 9 indicates a missing public key. The other fields give more information about this signature. sig_class is a 2 byte hex-value. The fingerprint may be used instead of the keyid if it is available. This is the case with gpgsm and might eventually also be available for OpenPGP.
Note, that TIME may either be the number of seconds since Epoch or the letter 'T'. an ISO 8601 string. The latter can be detected by the presence of
2.1.8 VALIDSIG <args>
The args are:
- <fingerprint_in_hex>
- <sig_creation_date>
- <sig-timestamp>
- <expire-timestamp>
- <sig-version>
- <reserved>
- <pubkey-algo>
- <hash-algo>
- <sig-class>
- [ <primary-key-fpr> ]
This status indicates that the signature is good. This is the same as GOODSIG but has the fingerprint as the argument. Both status lines are emitted for a good signature. All arguments here are on one long line. sig-timestamp is the signature creation time in seconds after the epoch. expire-timestamp is the signature expiration time in seconds after the epoch (zero means "does not expire"). sig-version, pubkey-algo, hash-algo, and sig-class (a 2-byte hex value) are all straight from the signature packet. PRIMARY-KEY-FPR is the fingerprint of the primary key or identical to the first argument. This is useful to get back to the primary key without running gpg again for this purpose.
The primary-key-fpr parameter is used for OpenPGP and not class is not defined for CMS and currently set to 0 and 00. available for CMS signatures. The sig-version as well as the sig
Note, that *-TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence of the letter 'T'.
2.1.9 SIG_ID <radix64_string> <sig_creation_date> <sig-timestamp>
This is emitted only for signatures of class 0 or 1 which have been verified okay. The string is a signature id and may be used in applications to detect replay attacks of signed messages. Note that only DLP algorithms give unique ids - others may yield duplicated ones when they have been created in the same second.
Note, that SIG-TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence of the letter 'T'.
2.1.10 ENC_TO <long_keyid> <keytype> <keylength>
The message is encrypted to this LONG_KEYID. KEYTYPE is the numerical value of the public key algorithm or 0 if it is not known, KEYLENGTH is the length of the key or 0 if it is not known (which is currently always the case). Gpg prints this line always; Gpgsm only if it knows the certificate.
2.1.11 BEGIN_DECRYPTION
Mark the start of the actual decryption process. This is also emitted when in –list-only mode.
2.1.12 END_DECRYPTION
Mark the end of the actual decryption process. This are also emitted when in –list-only mode.
2.1.13 DECRYPTION_INFO <mdc_method> <sym_algo>
Print information about the symmetric encryption algorithm and the MDC method. This will be emitted even if the decryption fails.
2.1.14 DECRYPTION_FAILED
The symmetric decryption failed - one reason could be a wrong passphrase for a symmetrical encrypted message.
2.1.15 DECRYPTION_OKAY
The decryption process succeeded. This means, that either the correct secret key has been used or the correct passphrase for a conventional encrypted message was given. The program itself may return an errorcode because it may not be possible to verify a signature for some reasons.
2.1.16 SESSION_KEY <algo>:<hexdigits>
The session key used to decrypt the message. This message will only be emitted when the special option –show-session-key is used. The format is suitable to be passed to the option –override-session-key
2.1.17 BEGIN_ENCRYPTION <mdc_method> <sym_algo>
Mark the start of the actual encryption process.
2.1.18 END_ENCRYPTION
Mark the end of the actual encryption process.
2.1.19 FILE_START <what> <filename>
Start processing a file <filename>. <what> indicates the performed operation:
- 1
- verify
- 2
- encrypt
- 3
- decrypt
2.1.20 FILE_DONE
Marks the end of a file processing which has been started by FILE_START.
2.1.21 BEGIN_SIGNING
Mark the start of the actual signing process. This may be used as an indication that all requested secret keys are ready for use.
2.1.22 ALREADY_SIGNED <long-keyid>
Warning: This is experimental and might be removed at any time.
2.1.23 SIG_CREATED <type> <pk_algo> <hash_algo> <class> <timestamp> <keyfpr>
A signature has been created using these parameters. Values for type <type> are:
- D
- detached
- C
- cleartext
- S
- standard
(only the first character should be checked)
<class> are 2 hex digits with the OpenPGP signature class.
Note, that TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence of the letter 'T'.
2.1.24 NOTATION_
There are actually two related status codes to convey notation data:
- NOTATION_NAME <name>
- NOTATION_DATA <string>
<name> and <string> are %XX escaped; the data may be split among several NOTATION_DATA lines.
2.1.25 POLICY_URL <string>
Note that URL in <string> is %XX escaped.
2.1.26 PLAINTEXT <format> <timestamp> <filename>
This indicates the format of the plaintext that is about to be written. The format is a 1 byte hex code that shows the format of the plaintext: 62 ('b') is binary data, 74 ('t') is text data with no character set specified, and 75 ('u') is text data encoded in the UTF-8 character set. The timestamp is in seconds since the epoch. If a filename is available it gets printed as the third argument, percent-escaped as usual.
2.1.27 PLAINTEXT_LENGTH <length>
This indicates the length of the plaintext that is about to be written. Note that if the plaintext packet has partial length encoding it is not possible to know the length ahead of time. In that case, this status tag does not appear.
2.1.28 ATTRIBUTE <arguments>
The list or argemnts are:
- <fpr>
- <octets>
- <type>
- <index>
- <count>
- <timestamp>
- <expiredate>
- <flags>
This is one long line issued for each attribute subpacket when an attribute packet is seen during key listing. <fpr> is the fingerprint of the key. <octets> is the length of the attribute subpacket. <type> is the attribute type (e.g. 1 for an image). <index> and <count> indicate that this is the N-th indexed subpacket of count total subpackets in this attribute packet. <timestamp> and <expiredate> are from the self-signature on the attribute packet. If the attribute packet does not have a valid self-signature, then the timestamp is 0. <flags> are a bitwise OR of:
- 0x01
- this attribute packet is a primary uid
- 0x02
- this attribute packet is revoked
- 0x04
- this attribute packet is expired
2.1.29 SIG_SUBPACKET <type> <flags> <len> <data>
This indicates that a signature subpacket was seen. The format is the same as the "spk" record above.
2.2 Key related
2.2.1 INV_RECP, INV_SGNR
The two similar status codes:
- INV_RECP <reason> <requested_recipient>
- INV_SGNR <reason> <requested_sender>
are issued for each unusable recipient/sender. The reasons codes currently in use are:
- 0
- No specific reason given
- 1
- Not Found
- 2
- Ambigious specification
- 3
- Wrong key usage
- 4
- Key revoked
- 5
- Key expired
- 6
- No CRL known
- 7
- CRL too old
- 8
- Policy mismatch
- 9
- Not a secret key
- 10
- Key not trusted
- 11
- Missing certificate
- 12
- Missing issuer certificate
Note that for historical reasons the INV_RECP status is also used for gpgsm's SIGNER command where it relates to signer's of course. Newer GnuPG versions are using INV_SGNR; applications should ignore the INV_RECP during the sender's command processing once they have seen an INV_SGNR. Different codes are used so that they can be distinguish while doing an encrypt+sign operation.
2.2.2 NO_RECP <reserved>
Issued if no recipients are usable.
2.2.3 NO_SGNR <reserved>
Issued if no senders are usable.
2.2.4 KEYEXPIRED <expire-timestamp>
The key has expired. expire-timestamp is the expiration time in seconds since Epoch. This status line is not very useful because it will also be emitted for expired subkeys even if this subkey is not used. To check whether a key used to sign a message has expired, the EXPKEYSIG status line is to be used.
Note, that the TIMESTAMP may either be a number of seconds since Epoch or an ISO 8601 string which can be detected by the presence of the letter 'T'.
2.2.5 KEYREVOKED
The used key has been revoked by its owner. No arguments yet.
2.2.6 NO_PUBKEY <long keyid>
The public key is not available
2.2.7 NO_SECKEY <long keyid>
The secret key is not available
2.2.8 KEY_CREATED <type> <fingerprint> [<handle>]
A key has been created. Values for <type> are:
- B
- primary and subkey
- P
- primary
- S
- subkey
The fingerprint is one of the primary key for type B and P and the one of the subkey for S. Handle is an arbitrary non-whitespace string used to match key parameters from batch key creation run.
2.2.9 KEY_NOT_CREATED [<handle>]
The key from batch run has not been created due to errors.
2.2.10 TRUST_
These are several similar status codes:
- TRUST_UNDEFINED <error_token>
- TRUST_NEVER <error_token>
- TRUST_MARGINAL [0 [<validation_model>]]
- TRUST_FULLY [0 [<validation_model>]]
- TRUST_ULTIMATE [0 [<validation_model>]]
For good signatures one of these status lines are emitted to indicate the validity of the key used to create the signature. The error token values are currently only emitted by gpgsm.
VALIDATION_MODEL describes the algorithm used to check the validity of the key. The defaults are the standard Web of Trust model for gpg and the the standard X.509 model for gpgsm. The defined values are
- pgp
- The standard PGP WoT.
- shell
- The standard X.509 model.
- chain
- The chain model.
- steed
- The STEED model.
Note that the term TRUST_ in the status names is used for
historic reasons; we now speak of validity.
2.2.11 PKA_TRUST_
This is is one:
- PKA_TRUST_GOOD <mailbox>
- PKA_TRUST_BAD <mailbox>
Depending on the outcome of the PKA check one of the above status
codes is emitted in addition to a TRUST_* status.
2.3 Remote control
2.3.1 GET_BOOL, GET_LINE, GET_HIDDEN, GOT_IT
These status line are used with –command-fd for interactive control of the process.
2.3.2 USERID_HINT <long main keyid> <string>
Give a hint about the user ID for a certain keyID.
2.3.3 NEED_PASSPHRASE <long keyid> <long main keyid> <keytype> <keylength>
Issued whenever a passphrase is needed. KEYTYPE is the numerical value of the public key algorithm or 0 if this is not applicable, KEYLENGTH is the length of the key or 0 if it is not known (this is currently always the case).
2.3.4 NEED_PASSPHRASE_SYM <cipher_algo> <s2k_mode> <s2k_hash>
Issued whenever a passphrase for symmetric encryption is needed.
2.3.5 NEED_PASSPHRASE_PIN <card_type> <chvno> [<serialno>]
Issued whenever a PIN is requested to unlock a card.
2.3.6 MISSING_PASSPHRASE
No passphrase was supplied. An application which encounters this message may want to stop parsing immediately because the next message will probably be a BAD_PASSPHRASE. However, if the application is a wrapper around the key edit menu functionality it might not make sense to stop parsing but simply ignoring the following BAD_PASSPHRASE.
2.3.7 BAD_PASSPHRASE <long keyid>
The supplied passphrase was wrong or not given. In the latter case you may have seen a MISSING_PASSPHRASE.
2.3.8 GOOD_PASSPHRASE
The supplied passphrase was good and the secret key material is therefore usable.
2.4 Import/Export
2.4.1 IMPORT_CHECK <long keyid> <fingerprint> <user ID>
This status is emitted in interactive mode right before the "import.okay" prompt.
2.4.2 IMPORTED <long keyid> <username>
The keyid and name of the signature just imported
2.4.3 IMPORT_OK <reason> [<fingerprint>]
The key with the primary key's FINGERPRINT has been imported. REASON flags are:
- 0
- Not actually changed
- 1
- Entirely new key.
- 2
- New user IDs
- 4
- New signatures
- 8
- New subkeys
- 16
- Contains private key.
The flags may be ORed.
2.4.4 IMPORT_PROBLEM <reason> [<fingerprint>]
Issued for each import failure. Reason codes are:
- 0
- No specific reason given.
- 1
- Invalid Certificate.
- 2
- Issuer Certificate missing.
- 3
- Certificate Chain too long.
- 4
- Error storing certificate.
2.4.5 IMPORT_RES <args>
Final statistics on import process (this is one long line). The args are a list of unsigned numbers separated by white space:
- <count>
- <no_user_id>
- <imported>
- <imported_rsa>
- <unchanged>
- <n_uids>
- <n_subk>
- <n_sigs>
- <n_revoc>
- <sec_read>
- <sec_imported>
- <sec_dups>
- <skipped_new_keys>
- <not_imported>
2.5 Smartcard related
2.5.1 CARDCTRL <what> [<serialno>]
This is used to control smartcard operations. Defined values for WHAT are:
- 1
- Request insertion of a card. Serialnumber may be given to request a specific card. Used by gpg 1.4 w/o scdaemon
- 2
- Request removal of a card. Used by gpg 1.4 w/o scdaemon.
- 3
- Card with serialnumber detected
- 4
- No card available
- 5
- No card reader available
- 6
- No card support available
2.5.2 SC_OP_FAILURE [<code>]
An operation on a smartcard definitely failed. Currently there is no indication of the actual error code, but application should be prepared to later accept more arguments. Defined values for <code> are:
- 0
- unspecified error (identically to a missing CODE)
- 1
- canceled
- 2
- bad PIN
2.5.3 SC_OP_SUCCESS
A smart card operaion succeeded. This status is only printed for certain operation and is mostly useful to check whether a PIN change really worked.
2.6 Miscellaneous status codes
2.6.1 NODATA <what>
No data has been found. Codes for WHAT are:
- 1
- No armored data.
- 2
- Expected a packet but did not found one.
- 3
- Invalid packet found, this may indicate a non OpenPGP message.
- 4
- Signature expected but not found
You may see more than one of these status lines.
2.6.2 UNEXPECTED <what>
Unexpected data has been encountered. Codes for WHAT are:
- 0
- Not further specified
2.6.3 TRUNCATED <maxno>
The output was truncated to MAXNO items. This status code is issued for certain external requests.
2.6.4 ERROR <error location> <error code> [<more>]
This is a generic error status message, it might be followed by error location specific data. <error code> and <error_location> should not contain spaces. The error code is a either a string commencing with a letter or such a string prefixed with a numerical error code and an underscore; e.g.: "151011327_EOF".
2.6.5 SUCCESS [<location>]
Postive confirimation that an operation succeeded. <location> is optional but if given should not contain spaces. Used only with a few commands.
2.6.6 BADARMOR
The ASCII armor is corrupted. No arguments yet.
2.6.7 DELETE_PROBLEM <reason_code>
Deleting a key failed. Reason codes are:
- 1
- No such key
- 2
- Must delete secret key first
- 3
- Ambigious specification
2.6.8 PROGRESS <what> <char> <cur> <total>
Used by the primegen and Public key functions to indicate progress. <char> is the character displayed with no –status-fd enabled, with the linefeed replaced by an 'X'. <cur> is the current amount done and <total> is amount to be done; a <total> of 0 indicates that the total amount is not known. The condition
TOTAL && CUR == TOTAL
may be used to detect the end of an operation.
Well known values for WHAT are:
- pk_dsa
- DSA key generation
- pk_elg
- Elgamal key generation
- primegen
- Prime generation
- need_entropy
- Waiting for new entropy in the RNG
- tick
- Generic tick without any special meaning - useful for letting clients know that the server is still working.
- starting_agent
- A gpg-agent was started because it is not running as a daemon.
- learncard
- Send by the agent and gpgsm while learing the data of a smartcard.
- card_busy
- A smartcard is still working
2.6.9 BACKUP_KEY_CREATED <fingerprint> <fname>
A backup of a key identified by <fingerprint> has been writte to the file <fname>; <fname> is percent-escaped.
2.6.10 MOUNTPOINT <name>
<name> is a percent-plus escaped filename describing the mountpoint for the current operation (e.g. used by "g13 –mount"). This may either be the specified mountpoint or one randomly choosen by g13.
2.6.11 PINENTRY_LAUNCHED <pid>
This status line is emitted by gpg to notify a client that a Pinentry has been launched. <pid> is the PID of the Pinentry. It may be used to display a hint to the user but can't be used to synchronize with Pinentry. Note that there is also an Assuan inquiry line with the same name used internally or, if enabled, send to the client instead of this status line. Such an inquiry may be used to sync with Pinentry
2.7 Obsolete status codes
2.7.1 SIGEXPIRED
Removed on 2011-02-04. This is deprecated in favor of KEYEXPIRED.
2.7.2 RSA_OR_IDEA
Obsolete. This status message used to be emitted for requests to use the IDEA or RSA algorithms. It has been dropped from GnuPG 2.1 after the respective patents expired.
2.7.3 SHM_INFO, SHM_GET, SHM_GET_BOOL, SHM_GET_HIDDEN
These were used for the ancient shared memory based co-processing.
2.7.4 BEGIN_STREAM, END_STREAM
Used to issued by the experimental pipemode.
3 Format of the –attribute-fd output
When –attribute-fd is set, during key listings (–list-keys, –list-secret-keys) GnuPG dumps each attribute packet to the file descriptor specified. –attribute-fd is intended for use with –status-fd as part of the required information is carried on the ATTRIBUTE status tag (see above).
The contents of the attribute data is specified by RFC 4880. For convenience, here is the Photo ID format, as it is currently the only attribute defined:
- Byte 0-1
- The length of the image header. Due to a historical accident (i.e. oops!) back in the NAI PGP days, this is a little-endian number. Currently 16 (0x10 0x00).
- Byte 2
- The image header version. Currently 0x01.
- Byte 3
- Encoding format. 0x01 == JPEG.
- Byte 4-15
- Reserved, and currently unused.
All other data after this header is raw image (JPEG) data.
4 Unattended key generation
Please see the GnuPG manual for a description.
5 Layout of the TrustDB
The TrustDB is built from fixed length records, where the first byte describes the record type. All numeric values are stored in network byte order. The length of each record is 40 bytes. The first record of the DB is always of type 1 and this is the only record of this type.
FIXME: The layout changed, document it here.
Record type 0:
--------------
Unused record, can be reused for any purpose.
Record type 1:
--------------
Version information for this TrustDB. This is always the first
record of the DB and the only one with type 1.
1 byte value 1
3 bytes 'gpg' magic value
1 byte Version of the TrustDB (2)
1 byte marginals needed
1 byte completes needed
1 byte max_cert_depth
The three items are used to check whether the cached
validity value from the dir record can be used.
1 u32 locked flags [not used]
1 u32 timestamp of trustdb creation
1 u32 timestamp of last modification which may affect the validity
of keys in the trustdb. This value is checked against the
validity timestamp in the dir records.
1 u32 timestamp of last validation [currently not used]
(Used to keep track of the time, when this TrustDB was checked
against the pubring)
1 u32 record number of keyhashtable [currently not used]
1 u32 first free record
1 u32 record number of shadow directory hash table [currently not used]
It does not make sense to combine this table with the key table
because the keyid is not in every case a part of the fingerprint.
1 u32 record number of the trusthashtbale
Record type 2: (directory record)
--------------
Informations about a public key certificate.
These are static values which are never changed without user interaction.
1 byte value 2
1 byte reserved
1 u32 LID . (This is simply the record number of this record.)
1 u32 List of key-records (the first one is the primary key)
1 u32 List of uid-records
1 u32 cache record
1 byte ownertrust
1 byte dirflag
1 byte maximum validity of all the user ids
1 u32 time of last validity check.
1 u32 Must check when this time has been reached.
(0 = no check required)
Record type 3: (key record)
--------------
Informations about a primary public key.
(This is mainly used to lookup a trust record)
1 byte value 3
1 byte reserved
1 u32 LID
1 u32 next - next key record
7 bytes reserved
1 byte keyflags
1 byte pubkey algorithm
1 byte length of the fingerprint (in bytes)
20 bytes fingerprint of the public key
(This is the value we use to identify a key)
Record type 4: (uid record)
--------------
Informations about a userid
We do not store the userid but the hash value of the userid because that
is sufficient.
1 byte value 4
1 byte reserved
1 u32 LID points to the directory record.
1 u32 next next userid
1 u32 pointer to preference record
1 u32 siglist list of valid signatures
1 byte uidflags
1 byte validity of the key calculated over this user id
20 bytes ripemd160 hash of the username.
Record type 5: (pref record)
--------------
This record type is not anymore used.
1 byte value 5
1 byte reserved
1 u32 LID; points to the directory record (and not to the uid record!).
(or 0 for standard preference record)
1 u32 next
30 byte preference data
Record type 6 (sigrec)
-------------
Used to keep track of key signatures. Self-signatures are not
stored. If a public key is not in the DB, the signature points to
a shadow dir record, which in turn has a list of records which
might be interested in this key (and the signature record here
is one).
1 byte value 6
1 byte reserved
1 u32 LID points back to the dir record
1 u32 next next sigrec of this uid or 0 to indicate the
last sigrec.
6 times
1 u32 Local_id of signatures dir or shadow dir record
1 byte Flag: Bit 0 = checked: Bit 1 is valid (we have a real
directory record for this)
1 = valid is set (but may be revoked)
Record type 8: (shadow directory record)
--------------
This record is used to reserve a LID for a public key. We
need this to create the sig records of other keys, even if we
do not yet have the public key of the signature.
This record (the record number to be more precise) will be reused
as the dir record when we import the real public key.
1 byte value 8
1 byte reserved
1 u32 LID (This is simply the record number of this record.)
2 u32 keyid
1 byte pubkey algorithm
3 byte reserved
1 u32 hintlist A list of records which have references to
this key. This is used for fast access to
signature records which are not yet checked.
Note, that this is only a hint and the actual records
may not anymore hold signature records for that key
but that the code cares about this.
18 byte reserved
Record Type 10 (hash table)
--------------
Due to the fact that we use fingerprints to lookup keys, we can
implement quick access by some simple hash methods, and avoid
the overhead of gdbm. A property of fingerprints is that they can be
used directly as hash values. (They can be considered as strong
random numbers.)
What we use is a dynamic multilevel architecture, which combines
hashtables, record lists, and linked lists.
This record is a hashtable of 256 entries; a special property
is that all these records are stored consecutively to make one
big table. The hash value is simple the 1st, 2nd, ... byte of
the fingerprint (depending on the indirection level).
When used to hash shadow directory records, a different table is used
and indexed by the keyid.
1 byte value 10
1 byte reserved
n u32 recnum; n depends on the record length:
n = (reclen-2)/4 which yields 9 for the current record length
of 40 bytes.
the total number of such record which makes up the table is:
m = (256+n-1) / n
which is 29 for a record length of 40.
To look up a key we use the first byte of the fingerprint to get
the recnum from this hashtable and look up the addressed record:
- If this record is another hashtable, we use 2nd byte
to index this hash table and so on.
- if this record is a hashlist, we walk all entries
until we found one a matching one.
- if this record is a key record, we compare the
fingerprint and to decide whether it is the requested key;
Record type 11 (hash list)
--------------
see hash table for an explanation.
This is also used for other purposes.
1 byte value 11
1 byte reserved
1 u32 next next hash list record
n times n = (reclen-5)/5
1 u32 recnum
For the current record length of 40, n is 7
Record type 254 (free record)
---------------
All these records form a linked list of unused records.
1 byte value 254
1 byte reserved (0)
1 u32 next_free
6 GNU extensions to the S2K algorithm
S2K mode 101 is used to identify these extensions. After the hash algorithm the 3 bytes "GNU" are used to make clear that these are extensions for GNU, the next bytes gives the GNU protection mode - 1000. Defined modes are:
- 1001
- Do not store the secret part at all.
- 1002
- A stub to access smartcards (not used in 1.2.x)
7 Keyserver helper message format
The keyserver may be contacted by a Unix Domain socket or via TCP.
The format of a request is:
command-tag "Content-length:" digits CRLF
Where command-tag is
NOOP GET <user-name> PUT DELETE <user-name>
The format of a response is:
"GNUPG/1.0" status-code status-text "Content-length:" digits CRLF
followed by <digits> bytes of data
Status codes are:
- 1xx
- Informational - Request received, continuing process
- 2xx
- Success - The action was successfully received, understood, and accepted
- 4xx
- Client Error - The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled
- 5xx
- Server Error - The server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request
8 Object identifiers
OIDs below the GnuPG arc:
1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2 GnuPG 1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.1 notation 1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.1.1 pkaAddress 1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.2 X.509 extensions 1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.2.1 standaloneCertificate 1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.2.2 wellKnownPrivateKey 1.3.6.1.4.1.11591.2.12242973 invalid encoded OID
9 Miscellaneous notes
9.1 v3 fingerprints
For packet version 3 we calculate the keyids this way:
- RSA
- Low 64 bits of n
- ELGAMAL
- Build a v3 pubkey packet (with CTB 0x99) and calculate a RMD160 hash value from it. This is used as the fingerprint and the low 64 bits are the keyid.
9.2 Simplified revocation certificates
Revocation certificates consist only of the signature packet; "–import" knows how to handle this. The rationale behind it is to keep them small.
9.3 Documentation on HKP (the http keyserver protocol):
A minimalistic HTTP server on port 11371 recognizes a GET for /pks/lookup. The standard http URL encoded query parameters are this (always key=value):
- op=index (like pgp -kv), op=vindex (like pgp -kvv) and op=get (like pgp -kxa)
- search=<stringlist>. This is a list of words that must occur in the key. The words are delimited with space, points, @ and so on. The delimiters are not searched for and the order of the words doesn't matter (but see next option).
- exact=on. This switch tells the hkp server to only report exact matching keys back. In this case the order and the "delimiters" are important.
- fingerprint=on. Also reports the fingerprints when used with 'index' or 'vindex'
The keyserver also recognizes http-POSTs to /pks/add. Use this to upload keys.
A better way to do this would be a request like:
/pks/lookup/<gnupg_formatierte_user_id>?op=<operation>
This can be implemented using Hurd's translator mechanism. However, I think the whole key server stuff has to be re-thought; I have some ideas and probably create a white paper.