Managing Personal Keys

Overview

If you want to digitally sign messages or enable others to send you encrypted messages, you must have your own personal public/private PGP keypair.

Your Public Key

Your public key should be made available to any person that you want to be able to send you encrypted messages that only YOU can decrypt (using your private key). Additionally, your public key needs to be made available to anybody you send a digitally signed message to - the public key is required to verify the digital signature.

Your Private Key

Your private key is necessary to decrypt any message encrypted using your public key. Additionally, your private key is needed if you want to digitally sign a message. Your private key will be protected via a passphrase created when the keys are generated. Thus, to perform any activity that requires your private key, you will be prompted for your passphrase. You only need to insert your passphrase once per session - it will be stored until you logout (So be sure to logout!).

Public Key

View

Opens a window to view the PGP public key.

Details

Displays some details about the PGP public key.

Private Key

Enter Passphrase

Opens the passphrase dialog window. The passphrase entered, if correct, will be stored until your session ends.

Unload Passphrase

Removes the stored passphrase from IMP - any additional usage of the private key will require you to reenter the passphease.

View

Opens a window to view the PGP private key. DO NOT SEND THIS KEY TO ANYONE -- this option is strictly so that you can export your personal private key for use in another program.

Details

Displays some details about the PGP private key.

Delete

This button will delete your personal public/private keypair from IMP's preferences.

Create Personal Key

Name

The name you want embedded in your personal keys. A required field.

Comment

A comment string you want embedded in your personal keys. An optional field.

E-mail Address

The e-mail address you want associated with your personal keys. A required field.

Keylength

The keylength, in bytes, of your generated key. The greater the value, the greater the protection (and also greater generation time and encryption time). 1024 bytes is the default - this value provides excellent protection.

Passphrase

The passphrase used to protect/encrypt your personal private key. This should be AT LEAST 6 characters, should NOT be the same as your login password, should NOT be based on a dictionary word, and should include both numbers and letters. You must enter this passphrase twice for verification purposes. A required field.

Actions

Create Keys

Create and store your personal/private keypair.

Import Keypair

Import a personal/private keypair. This button opens a window where you can manually import your existing PGP personal public/private keypair. The keys can either be pasted into a textfield or, if the keys reside in a file on your local computer, you can import them. If the keys are valid they will be inserted into your preferences and the window will close; if not valid, an error message will be returned explaining why.