Get expiration date by searching on keyservers

David Shaw dshaw at jabberwocky.com
Wed Apr 30 19:25:21 CEST 2014


On Apr 29, 2014, at 6:40 PM, Koen <koen.vanimpe at cudeso.be> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I use '--keyserver <srv> --search-keys <key'> to get info on a number of
> keys. As far as I can tell, that doesn't return an expiration date (if
> that exists).

GPG's keyserver code is capable of displaying expiration date, if the keyserver provides it.  Not all do.

But - and this is important - like all key data (from expiration date, to revocation status, to the user IDs, etc), the info returned by a keyserver is only informational.  You cannot rely on it until you download the key and check it yourself.  The keyservers are simply storage, and do not verify the keys sent to them (and you shouldn't trust them even if they claimed to).

David




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