[Announce] GnuPG 2.1.8 released

Werner Koch wk at gnupg.org
Thu Sep 10 21:26:05 CEST 2015


Hello!

The GnuPG Project is pleased to announce the availability of a new
release of GnuPG modern: Version 2.1.8.

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is a complete and free implementation
of the OpenPGP standard which is commonly abbreviated as PGP.

GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign data and communication, features a
versatile key management system as well as access modules for public key
directories.  GnuPG itself is a command line tool with features for easy
integration with other applications.  A wealth of frontend applications
and libraries making use of GnuPG are available.  Since version 2 GnuPG
provides support for S/MIME and Secure Shell in addition to OpenPGP.

GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it respects your freedom). It can
be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License.

Three different branches of GnuPG are actively maintained:

- GnuPG "modern" (2.1) is the latest development with a lot of new
  features.  This announcement is about this branch.

- GnuPG "stable" (2.0) is the current stable version for general use.
  This is what most users are currently using.

- GnuPG "classic" (1.4) is the old standalone version which is most
  suitable for older or embedded platforms.

You may not install "modern" (2.1) and "stable" (2.0) at the same
time.  However, it is possible to install "classic" (1.4) along with
any of the other versions.


Noteworthy changes in version 2.1.8
===================================

 * gpg: Sending very large keys to the keyservers works again.

 * gpg: Validity strings in key listings are now again translatable.

 * gpg: Emit FAILURE status lines to help GPGME.

 * gpg: Does not anymore link to Libksba to reduce dependencies.

 * gpgsm: Export of secret keys via Assuan is now possible.

 * agent: Raise the maximum passphrase length from 100 to 255 bytes.

 * agent: Fix regression using EdDSA keys with ssh.

 * Does not anymore use a build timestamp by default.

 * The fallback encoding for broken locale settings changed
   from Latin-1 to UTF-8.

 * Many code cleanups and improved internal documentation.

 * Various minor bug fixes.

A detailed description of the changes found in the 2.1 branch can be
found at <https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html>.

Please be aware that there are still known bugs which we are working on.
Check https://bugs.gnupg.org, https://wiki.gnupg.org, and the mailing
list archives for known problems and workarounds.


Getting the Software
====================

Please follow the instructions found at https://gnupg.org/download/ or
read on:

GnuPG 2.1.8 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or
direct from its primary FTP server.  The list of mirrors can be found
at <https://gnupg.org/mirrors.html>.  Note that GnuPG is not available
at ftp.gnu.org.

The GnuPG source code compressed using BZIP2 and its OpenPGP signature
are available here:

 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2  (4786k)
 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2.sig

or here:

 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2  (4786k)
 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2.sig

An installer for Windows without any graphical frontend except for a
basic Pinentry tool is available here:

 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.8_20150910.exe  (2579k)
 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.8_20150910.exe.sig

or here

 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.8_20150910.exe  (2579k)
 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.8_20150910.exe.sig

Note that on Windows TLS access to keyservers is not yet available.  The
sources used to build the installer can be found in the same directory
with a ".tar.xz" suffix.



Checking the Integrity
======================

In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to
install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of
the following ways:

 * If you already have a version of GnuPG installed, you can simply
   verify the supplied signature.  For example to verify the signature
   of the file gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

     gpg --verify gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2.sig gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2

   This checks whether the signature file matches the source file.
   You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and
   made by one or more of the release signing keys.  Make sure that
   this is a valid key, either by matching the shown fingerprint
   against a trustworthy list of valid release signing keys or by
   checking that the key has been signed by trustworthy other keys.
   See below for information on the signing keys.

 * If you are not able to use an existing version of GnuPG, you have
   to verify the SHA-1 checksum.  On Unix systems the command to do
   this is either "sha1sum" or "shasum".  Assuming you downloaded the
   file gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2, you run the command like this:

     sha1sum gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2

   and check that the output matches the next line:

61f5bc656dd7fddd4ab67b720d47ef0651bfb727  gnupg-2.1.8.tar.bz2
fb70068a7e77f28946c24ac29a508fb5f419ffeb  gnupg-w32-2.1.8_20150910.exe
504ec0f678a7a5eea144aed5a2d1691ce83e62ab  gnupg-w32-2.1.8_20150910.tar.xz



Release Signing Keys
====================

To guarantee that a downloaded GnuPG version has not been tampered by
malicious entities we provide signature files for all tarballs and
binary versions.  The keys are also signed by the long term keys of
their respective owners.  Current releases are signed by one or more
of these four keys:

  2048R/4F25E3B6 2011-01-12 [expires: 2019-12-31]
  Key fingerprint = D869 2123 C406 5DEA 5E0F  3AB5 249B 39D2 4F25 E3B6
  Werner Koch (dist sig)

  rsa2048/E0856959 2014-10-29 [expires: 2019-12-31]
  Key fingerprint = 46CC 7308 65BB 5C78 EBAB  ADCF 0437 6F3E E085 6959
  David Shaw (GnuPG Release Signing Key) <dshaw 'at' jabberwocky.com>

  rsa2048/33BD3F06 2014-10-29 [expires: 2016-10-28]
  Key fingerprint = 031E C253 6E58 0D8E A286  A9F2 2071 B08A 33BD 3F06
  NIIBE Yutaka (GnuPG Release Key) <gniibe 'at' fsij.org>

  rsa2048/7EFD60D9 2014-10-19 [expires: 2020-12-31]
  Key fingerprint = D238 EA65 D64C 67ED 4C30  73F2 8A86 1B1C 7EFD 60D9
  Werner Koch (Release Signing Key)

You may retrieve these keys from a keyserver using this command

  gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys  \
                  249B39D24F25E3B6 04376F3EE0856959 \
                  2071B08A33BD3F06 8A861B1C7EFD60D9

The keys are also available at https://gnupg.org/signature_key.html and
in any recently released GnuPG tarball in the file g10/distsigkey.gpg .
Note that this mail has been signed using by a different key.


Internationalization
====================

This version of GnuPG has support for 26 languages with Chinese,
Czech, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Ukrainian being almost
completely translated (2074 different strings).


Documentation
=============

If you used GnuPG in the past you should read the description of
changes and new features at doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt or online at

  https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html

The file gnupg.info has the complete user manual of the system.
Separate man pages are included as well but they have not all the
details available as are the manual.  It is also possible to read the
complete manual online in HTML format at

  https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/

or in Portable Document Format at

  https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg.pdf .

The chapters on gpg-agent, gpg and gpgsm include information on how
to set up the whole thing.  You may also want search the GnuPG mailing
list archives or ask on the gnupg-users mailing lists for advise on
how to solve problems.  Many of the new features are around for
several years and thus enough public knowledge is already available.

You may also want to follow postings at https://gnupg.org/blob/.


Support
========

Please consult the archive of the gnupg-users mailing list before
reporting a bug <https://gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html>.
We suggest to send bug reports for a new release to this list in favor
of filing a bug at <https://bugs.gnupg.org>.  For commercial support
requests we keep a list of known service companies at:

  https://gnupg.org/service.html

If you are a developer and you may need a certain feature for your
project, please do not hesitate to bring it to the gnupg-devel mailing
list for discussion.


Thanks
======

We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it
testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, administering the
servers, spreading the word, and answering questions on the mailing
lists.  Maintenance and development of GnuPG is possible due to many
individual and corporate donations; for a list of non-anonymous donors
see <https://gnupg.org/donate/kudos.html>.


For the GnuPG hackers,

   Werner


p.s.
This is an announcement only mailing list.  Please send replies only to
the gnupg-users'at'gnupg.org mailing list.

-- 
Die Gedanken sind frei.  Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz.
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