Differnent Sizes of Public PGP Keys
Hello: I have been noticing that the sizes of the Public PGP Key Block on some of your messages are different sizes. When I set up my PGP key pair, I selected the largest key size which was 1024. It then gave me a public key block that look like this: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAzD5t24AAAEEALSR4OvQ9lfGpTjqDsuYgtCtI9eYC82E29VO6tL6cBDNCWc/ KgJiPUvqV3ZSDLEbGy4t3FTDIguKITUxCJwtaMhZyOUFvjP51noFw1lhP3y1GW8J 9sHW+M8eo/F6S5OSUuw6P7yYU2+4cO3lBASFA2aL0JoUIwS2bT+5LqLYocENAAUR tBxNYXJrIEFsbHluIDxhbGx5bkBhbGx5bi5jb20+ =Q3/s -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- This is only 4 lines and a few characters long. I have noticed that some others have public keys that are larger than this. I have noticed one public key that is about 10 lines long. What is happening here? Are there keys that are bigger than 1024? I am using the latest PGP that is available from MIT. Please help! Thank you! Mark Allyn allyn@allyn.com http://mark.allyn.com http://clearplastic.com
Key certificates also include signatures. If you have many signatures on your key, your key certificate can get very big. For example, mine is about 10k or more (I haven't checked recently) with all the signature intact. As for keysize, you can generate keys as large as 2048 bits with PGP 2.6.2; you just need to type "2048" when it asks you for a keysize. Alternatively, you can type in any keysize you wish to use, rather than using the default sizes. I hope this helps. -derek
participants (2)
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Derek Atkins -
Mark Allyn 860-9454