GPG Core Concepts and Operations | Generated by AI
Yes, that’s a solid high-level way to think about GPG (GnuPG)—it primarily revolves around two core areas:
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Key Management: This includes generating key pairs (public/private), importing/exporting keys, listing/editing keys, signing keys, revoking them, and managing trust levels. Commands like
gpg --gen-key,--import,--list-keys, and--edit-keyhandle this. -
Encrypt/Decrypt (and Related Ops): This covers encrypting files or messages with public keys (so only the recipient can decrypt with their private key), decrypting with your private key, plus signing/verifying data for authenticity. Commands like
gpg -e -r user@example.com(encrypt),gpg -d(decrypt), and-s(sign) fall here.
It’s all built on asymmetric cryptography (public-key systems like RSA or ECC), but GPG also supports symmetric encryption for simpler cases. If you’re diving deeper, the signing/verification is often bundled with encrypt/decrypt workflows for end-to-end security.
GNU Privacy Guard Documentation