Importing keys

[Neil Williams]

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Andreas Hess wrote:
| Hi,
|
| I have the following problem. I would like to import a public key by
| gpg --import file.pub
| and doing so, I receive the following output
|
| gpg:  ..... no valid user IDs
| gpg: this may be caused by a missing self-signature
| gpg: Total number processed: 1
| gpg:           w/o user IDs: 1
|
| Must the public key be signed? Or is there another possibility to import
| public keys?

Public keys which are not self-signed are trivially easy to forge and
are therefore not advisable. (IIRC, recent versions of GnuPG won't
create this kind of key by default.)

As a separate issue, the public key can't be validated by others without
~ signatures, so signatures (self and others) are the basis of most trust
issues in GnuPG.




- --

Neil Williams
=============
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