GPG keys are used for symmetric key encryption. GnuPG is the most common tool to create such keys.
- Ubuntu server
- GnuPG, rng-tools
Change the shell context to the user which uses the new GPG keys.
su [user]
Or use the root user.
sudo su
Give your server some work, otherwhise gpg won't be able to generator random bytes.
sudo rngd -r /dev/urandom
Genrate the gpg key.
gpg --gen-key
Answert the prompts.
Your selection?: (1) RSA and RSA (default)
What keysize do you want?: 2048
Key is valid for?: 0 = key does not expire
Is this correct?: y
Real name: [firstname] [surname]
Email address: [mail]@[example.org]
Comment:
Change ... (O)kay/(Q)uit?: O
Enter passphrase: [gpg passphrase]
Repeat passphrase: [gpg passphrase]
Kill the rngd task.
sudo service rng-tools stop
Show the new GnuPG keys.
gpg -k
The gpg key id is displayed in the line pub 2048R/>>C58886FB<< 2014-03-14
Export the public key into a text file and back it up in a secure place.
gpg --armor --export -a [gpg key id] > [firstname][surname][server name]#public.key
Export the private key into a text file and back it up in a secure place.
gpg --armor --export-secret-keys -a [gpg key id] > [firstname][surname][server name]#private.key
Exit the user shell context if you have switched to another user.
exit
Store the gpg passphrase in a secure place f.g. KeePass Password Safe.
Unattended, Encrypted, Incremental Network Backups by Kellen Ubuntu: How to create a lot of entropy for GPG key generation from command line