Goal Understand the public-key cryptography revolution and generate your first GPG keypair. This is the foundation for everything else in the course. Prerequisites: Week 2 (Cryptography Fundamentals) This is Part 1 of 4 - Covers history, concepts, and key generation. Introduction: The Public Key Revolution Week 2 taught you symmetric encryption - Alice and Bob share the same secret key. But how do they exchange that key securely? The problem: ...
Goal Master practical GPG operations: understanding your keyring, encrypting files for yourself and others, and creating digital signatures that prove authorship and integrity. Prerequisites: Week 3a (GPG Introduction & Key Generation) This is Part 2 of 4 - Covers keyring management, encryption operations, and signatures. 1. Understanding Your GPG Keyring List All Keys # List public keys gpg --list-keys # Output: pub rsa4096 2025-10-14 [SC] [expires: 2027-10-14] ABCD1234ABCD1234ABCD1234ABCD1234ABCD1234 uid [ultimate] Alice Cypherpunk <[email protected]> sub rsa4096 2025-10-14 [E] [expires: 2027-10-14] Key anatomy: ...
Goal Master public key distribution methods: exporting and importing keys, using keyservers safely, and understanding the Web of Trust model for decentralized identity verification. Prerequisites: Week 3b (Encryption & Signatures) This is Part 3 of 4 - Covers key distribution, keyservers, and web of trust. 1. Public Key Distribution and Import Export Your Public Key # Export in ASCII armor (shareable format) gpg --armor --export [email protected] > alice-public-key.asc # View the exported key cat alice-public-key.asc Output: ...
Goal Complete your GPG mastery with key lifecycle management (rotation, revocation, backup), practical email encryption, and understanding when to use modern alternatives like age for simpler use cases. Prerequisites: Week 3c (Key Distribution & Web of Trust) This is Part 4 of 4 - Covers key management, email encryption, and modern alternatives. 1. Key Management: Rotation, Revocation, and Backup Extending Key Expiration Your key expires in 2 years. Before expiration: ...