Messed up my GnuPG settings....help needed.

[Neil Williams]

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On Thursday 24 April 2003 10:17 pm, John Watson wrote:
> I mistakenly erased both my public and private keys (yes even after being
> warned 2 or 3 times). Anyway I did generate a revoke key.
>
> I have since re-generated a new set of keys although I haven't exported any
> nor have I sent an emails using them (except to myself for testing). I
> thought that I may be able to use the same passphrase to regenerate the
> same set of keys as before (!). However I believe this would be futile due
> to a random seed coming into play (right??).

The passphrase can be the same but the key will differ as will the keyid.

> My questions are:
> 1.      Can I rescue my original keys at all?

Not without a backup of your secret keyring. You can restore your public ring 
- all you need is a list of the KeyID's that you are most likely to need and 
a keyserver. Without the secret key you won't be able to decrypt messages 
that used your old key or sign your new key with your old to carry forward 
the trust from existing signatures on your old key.

> 2.      If not, how do I go about exporting my revoke key to cancel my
> 	 previous public key?

You've done the bit at:
http://webber.dewinter.com/gnupg_howto/english/GPGMiniHowto-3.html#ss3.4

So:
http://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html#REVOCATION
anybody can publish the revocation certificate and render the corresponding 
public key useless.

(That's why the revocation certificate needs to be protected).

In your newly blank ring, import your existing public key from a keyserver, 
import the revocation certificate and send the altered key back to the 
keyserver.


-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.codehelp.co.uk
http://www.dclug.org.uk

http://www.wewantbroadband.co.uk/


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