List

Owned Keys

Keys that you own (aka: you have access to the private keys)

gpg2 --list-secret-keys

Interpret Output

1sec   rsa4096/0xCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC 2015-02-01 [SCA] [expires: 2020-01-31]
2      FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
3uid                   [ultimate] Jane Roe <jane@roe.de>
4uid                   [ultimate] Dr. Jane Roe <j.roe@esa.int>
5ssb   rsa4096/0xEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 2015-02-01 [E] [expires: 2020-01-31]

Line-By-Line

  • line 1: the primary key

  • line 2: fingerprint

  • line 3-4: user IDs of the key (optional, used in Web-of-Trust and for Certification)

  • line 5: the first subkey

Column-By-Column

1st column:

  • sec: … (secret key available?)

  • ssb: … (secret key of a subkey available?)

  • ssb*: currently selected subkey during edits (next section: selected via gpg2 --edit-key CCCCCC - key N)

  • ssb>: only stub of a subkey is available (next section: after secret part has been moved to a smartcard)

  • sec#: the secret part is not available (removed from local key store)

  • uid: this line is a user ID

2nd column:

  • algorithm/0xKeyID

3rd column:

  • date of generation

4th column:

  • [...]`: capabilities (see below)

5th column:

  • date of expiration

Capabilities

Noted in each key with [...]. Can be delegated from the primary key to subkeys.

S: Sign. Signs data, such as e-mails.

C: Certification. Certifies (also: “signs”) keys, e.g. keys of other people at a crypto party or during subkey generation. All primary keys must have this capability.

A: Authenticate. Can be used for logins such as SSH.

E: Encrypt. Encrypts (and decrypts?) data.

Note

to do: document each entry/line