What is GNUPG

[Eric B]

GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign your data and communication, features a versatile key managment system as well as access modules for all kind of public key directories. GnuPG itself is a commandline tool without any graphical stuff. It is the real crypto engine which can be used directly from a command prompt, from shell scripts or by other programs. Therefore it can be considered as a backend for other applications.

It is also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for easy integration with other applications. A wealth of frontend applications and libraries are available. Version 2 of GnuPG also provides support for S/MIME.As part of the GNU project, GnuPG is community developed, and everyone is welcome to contribute under certain conditions. Some companies are offering paid services to meet specific needs. This page contain links to companies that wishes to announce their interest in working with GnuPG and related software.

GnuPG is Free Software that comes in two flavours: 1.4.9 is the well known and portable standalone version, whereas 2.0.12 is the enhanced and somewhat harder to build version. Source:gnupg.org

[ThoMas321]

However, even when used on the command line it provides all functionality needed - this includes an interactive menu system. The set of commands of this tool will always be a superset of those provided by any frontends.

• Full replacement of PGP.
• Does not use any patented algorithms.
• GPLed, written from scratch.
• Can be used as a filter program.
• Full OpenPGP implementation
• Better functionality than PGP and some security enhancements over PGP 2.
• Decrypts and verifies PGP 5, 6 and 7 messages.
• Supports ElGamal, DSA, RSA, AES, 3DES, Blowfish, Twofish, CAST5, MD5, SHA-1, RIPE-MD-160 and TIGER.
• Easy implementation of new algorithms using extension modules.
• The User ID is forced to be in a standard format.
• Supports key and signature expiration dates.
• English, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portuguese), Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish language support.
• Online help system.
• Optional anonymous message receivers.
• Integrated support for HKP keyservers (wwwkeys.pgp.net).
• Clears signed patch files which can still be processed by patch.