textfiles/bbs/KEELYNET/UNCLASS/how_pgp.asc

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March 2, 1994
HOW_PGP.ASC
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This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Ken Wells.
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Bert Pool's PGP cookbook:
PGP has great encryption software, but the documentation does NOT
present the "how to" in a very useable order. All the instructions
are in there, somewhere, but the information is NOT ordered so that
you can "abc" it and DO something!
Below is my PGP cookbook, with four basics steps to setup PGP so you
can send and receive encrypted data. Enjoy.
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In order to use PGP you have to, in this order:
a) create a secure "private" key - this is your unique secret key
phrase and file that only you know. Never ever write down down
your pass phrase. Never ever forget it. Make it something very
complex that you can remember.
b) create a "public" key file which OTHER people will use to encode
messages and files which they will send to you. You will make
this key file available to everyone who might need to send you a
secure file.
c) You need to receive other PGP user's public keys and store them
on your key ring.
d) You will use a person's public key to decode a message or file
that they have sent you.
PGP does other fancy things, and I won't get into those. Below are
details of the minimum basics:
a & b) To create your private and public keys, type "PGP -kg".
Follow the on screen instructions. Select the military grade
of encryption from the menu. Sure, it will take longer for
PGP to generate you a military grade encryption key, but it
will be a SECURE key. If you tire of waiting, then go fix
yourself a cup of cocoa. I like to put those teeny
marshmallows in mine.
You will be asked for your name. Enter first, middle initial,
last. Don't just enter "Bob Smith". There are going to be
hundreds, thousands of Bob Smith's out there. Make it so that
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your friend in lower Slobovia who wants to send you a secure
document can pick you out of a list of many Bob Smiths without
a lot of guessing. If you have a net i.d., you can tack the
i.d. onto the end of your name (pgp will give you an example).
You will be asked to enter a pass phrase. Make it long. Make
it complex. Make it something not even your mother could
guess. Do NOT make the stupid mistake of using your birth
place, social security number, date of birth, parents names,
spouse name or birth date, your kid's names, etc. DO NOT
WRITE IT DOWN, EVER. DO NOT STORE IT IN YOUR COMPUTER, EVER.
You are making it up, so you should be able to make it
something you can remember. Make it something you will never
ever forget. If you forget it, no one can help you. You will
be doomed to receive documents and files that you can never
decrypt and read. You will be miserable.
Anyway, from this pass phrase entry work, a public key file
and a secret key file will be produced.
Your SECRET key file is NOT to be given to anyone. Keep it
secure. ***** Do not save it in a networked p.c.! ***** Keep
it on a diskette, which you keep in a very safe place.
Personally, I hide mine between the plastic wrapped cheese
slices in my 'fridge - but my wife has gotten used to my
little idiosyncracies like this.....
Your public key file will be placed in a file called
"pubring.pgp". You may copy your public key off of this ring
to a different file which you may send to your friends. See
step "d" below for specifics on this.
Your secret key file will be put on a secret ring, in a file
called "secring.pgp". This is the file that you want to keep
very secure.
c) Adding someone's public key to your public key ring:
Example:
Bob sends you his public keyfile on a diskette. You pop the
diskette into your p.c. and do a dir on the diskette and you
see a file "bobsmith.pgp". You wish to add this public key to
your public key ring (pubring.pgp) so that you may encode
files that you may wish to send Bob. To add his key to your
public ring you type:
"pgp -ka bobsmith.pgp pubring"
His key will be added to your public key ring. You may now
encode files using his public key. Only Bob Smith will be
able to decode the file you send him (assuming someone at his
house has not eaten a bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheese and
secret diskette sandwich).
To COPY your public key from your public key ring to a file
that you send to your friends, type:
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"pgp -kx userid keyfile pubring"
Example:
You will replace "userid" with your name (remember entering
your i.d. back in step a?) You will replace "keyfile" with
any name which you wish to use for your public key file name.
My name is Bert Pool, so I logically named my public key file
"bertpool.pgp". You can call it anything you want - but I
already have dibs on "bertpool.pgp". Make it some name that
your friends will recognize.
When I created a copy of my public key which I uploaded to
Keely Net, I typed:
pgp -kx "Bert" bertpool.pgp pubring
A file containing my public key was created, called
bertpool.pgp.
Your friends will add your public key to THEIR key rings using
step c, above. They will use it to encode messages sent FROM
THEM TO YOU. You will use your SECRET key ring and secret
pass phrase to decode any such files sent to you by your
friends.
d) decoding a file sent to you
Bob sends you an encrypted file called "payroll.pgp".
Obviously it contains sensitive information (executives get
real nervous when payroll information might accidently become
available to the masses), and so it was encrypted with YOUR
public key. You run to your fridge, dig through the cheese,
and ferret out your secret key ring disk, and pop it into your
p.c. (after wiping off the mustard, of course).
You type "pgp payroll.pgp -o payroll.txt". PGP will decrypt
the encoded file payrollpgp and produce a decoded file called
payroll.txt.
PGP comes with a file called PGP.HLP which is a very nice list
of all the PGP command options. You probably need to print
this out and keep it handy for reference, especially if you
ever need to do one of the upmteen special things that PGP
does so well.
Bert Pool
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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