Once you have created your keypair, you should create a revocation
certificate for your public key. If you forget your passphrase, or if it
has been compromised, you can publish this certificate to inform users
that your public key should no longer be used.
 | Note |
|---|
| | When you generate a revocation certificate, you are not revoking the
key you just created. Instead, you're giving yourself a safe way to
revoke your key from public use. Let's say you create a key, then you
forget your passphrase, switch ISPs (addresses), or suffer a hard
drive crash. The revocation certificate can then be used to disqualify
your public key.
|
Your signature will be valid to others who read your correspondence
before your key is revoked, and you will be able to decrypt messages
received prior to its revocation. To generate a revocation certificate,
use the --gen-revoke option:
gpg --output revoke.asc --gen-revoke <you@yourisp.net> |
Note that if you omit the --output revoke.asc option
from the above, your revocation certificate will be returned to the
standard output, which is your monitor screen. While you can copy and
paste the contents of the output into a file of your choice using a text
editor, such as Pico, it is probably easier
to send the output to a file in your login directory. That way, you can
keep the certificate for use later, or move it to a floppy disk and
store it someplace safe.
To create a revocation certificate, use the command:
gpg --output revoke.asc --gen-revoke <you@yourisp.net> |
The output will look similar to the following:
sec 1024D/823D25A9 2000-04-26 Your Name <you@yourisp.net>
Create a revocation certificate for this key? y
You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Your Name <you@yourisp.net>"
1024-bit DSA key, ID 823D25A9, created 2000-04-26
ASCII armored output forced.
Revocation certificate created. |
Once your revocation certificate has been created
(revoke.asc), it will be located in your login
directory. You should copy the certificate to a floppy diskette and
store it in a secure place. (If you don't know how to copy a file to a
diskette in Red Hat Linux, see the Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide.)
