PGP is no longer being offered on the software grid. Support is being phased out and will discontinue at the end of 2016. |
Apr 11, 2020 We are producing here the easiest possible way to implement PGP in Linux OS. Read on the whole guide to understand every step thoroughly. Video Tutorial On How to Encrypt and Decrypt PGP Message In Linux PGP Guide for Linux: We will be using CLI to put in these two pieces of software, and creating the keypair. Jul 03, 2019 Here’s my basic guide for PGP on OS X. The OS in question is OS X 10.9 Mavericks, but it should still work for other versions. As for the tool itself, we’ll be using GPG Suite Beta 5. This is my first time using OS X in years. If you see anything I’m doing wrong, or could be done easier, feel free to correct me in the comments.
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About
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a piece of software that offers, primarily, whole disk encryption capabilities. Because of its proven reliability, ease-of-use and time-tested security features, PGP Desktop was chosen by IS&T to protect MIT's high-risk data.
PGP Desktop 10 Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) is currently being distributed for individuals who need to protect data on laptops and portable storage devices against physical loss or theft. It is the recommended solution for encryption on a Windows computer.
Enable PGP Desktop
PGP and Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) users: IS&T recommends that users who handle sensitive data on Macs and use PGP for encryption wait to upgrade to Mountain Lion or to switch to FileVault the native encryption system on Macs. To make the switch from PGP to FileVault, first uninstall PGP, and then use these instructions to enable FileVault. |
- First run Identity Finder to see if there are sensitive data files on the computer. If possible, take action to remove any sensitive information. If no sensitive data resides on the computer, there is no need for full-disk encryption.
- Check compatibility issues.
- Obtain a copy of PGP Desktop (MIT faculty and staff only).
- Back up your data before you install PGP Desktop or encrypt your computer, using a backup tool such as CrashPlan PROe.
- Install PGP Desktop on your computer and initiate encryption.
- (Optional) Encrypt an external drive.
FAQ
Do I need to encrypt my computer using PGP Desktop?
Not everyone who has sensitive data on their computers needs to encrypt their computer. You should first identify and inventory the data you have on your computer, and Identity Finder is a software utility that does just that. Currently, laptops and other portable storage devices (i.e. portable hard drives, USB memory sticks) that contain personal information requiring notification (PIRN) are required to be encrypted.
If you want to use PGP Desktop, check in first with your system administrator. Local IT policy may require additional safeguards to ensure that - should you leave MIT, be unavailable, or forget your password - someone from your business area can still access the important business files on the encrypted computer.
How does PGP Desktop protect my data?
PGP protects the data only when the computer is turned off (learn more about whole disk encryption).
PGP offers no protection for malware (computer virus) infections. Users must maintain their operating system and practice good computing hygiene (applying patches, security updates, creating strong passwords, and staying away from dubious links and web sites).
PGP Desktop also does not encrypt email or attachments. Users must look to other tools for protecting data in transit, such as PGP Zip.
Is my computer protected when it is in sleep mode or when the screen saver is active?
No. Your sensitive data is only protected by PGP whole disk encryption when your computer is turned off. Once you boot your computer and enter your password, your disks are mounted even when a screen saver is active or your computer hibernates. This means data can still be accessed on your computer when you don't have a screen saver or a wake-from-sleep password. We therefore recommend you protect your computer by also putting your computer to sleep with a strong password.
Can PGP Desktop be installed on desktop computers or only on laptops?
PGP protects the data only when the computer is off, so it is most useful on machines that are likely to be lost or stolen (e.g. laptops and USB drives). Since certain desktops can also be stolen, PGP can certainly be installed on desktops as well.
Does PGP Desktop work on a Mac?
Because there have been delays by Symantec (the company that owns PGP Desktop) to provide compatible versions of PGP Desktop for Mac OS X, IS&T does not recommend using PGP Desktop on a Mac computer. Instead, we recommend using FileVault 2. The current version of PGP Desktop on the IS&T software grid does not run on Mac OS X 10.8.
Can I install PGP Desktop on multiple workstations using an image?
No. As each workstation must be enrolled with the PGP Universal Server using the individual's credentials - for recovery purposes - there isn't an easy way to do this. The install takes a minimal amount of time, so individual installations do not pose a major time-sink to deploy.
Can I use MIT's PGP Desktop on my home computer?
No. MIT's PGP license does not allow for installation on home computers.
Does PGP work on mobile devices?
No. PGP does not currently support mobile devices (smartphones or tablets). See more about encryption on mobile devices here.
If I change my Kerberos password, will my PGP passphrase also change?
No, the two are not connected. Although you may have originally used your Kerberos password as your PGP passphrase when you installed PGP, if you change your Kerberos password later on, this does not also change your PGP passphrase.
Can I share my passphrase with Desktop Support?
You should not need to, and doing so may violate state laws that require you to protect personal information that is on your computer.
What is the difference between PGP key, password, passphrase and recovery token?
- PGP password & PGP passphrase: these two terms can be used interchangeably. This is what needs to be entered when your computer boots up to bypass the PGP protection screen.
- Whole Disk Recovery Token: if you forget your password, a recovery token can be generated to regain access to your system. The token acts as a one-time password.
- Keys: your hard disk is encrypted using what's called a symmetric key; that is, the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the data on your hard drive. The security of the system comes from the key being kept secret. In PGP Desktop's case, the key is kept secret using your password.
Support
Uninstalling
Troubleshooting
Passphrase issues
How to..
Users in need of further assistance can contact the Help Desk at 617.253.1101, [email protected], or by submitting a request online (http://ist.mit.edu/help).
When I decided to set up my Mac with PGP encrypted communications, I could not believe how hard it was -- not just to set up the software, but to understand how to use PGP properly. There was no 'PGP for Dummies' tutorial for OS X on the internet. So I decided to write one. This is my über simple, nerd-free tutorial for anyone on Mac. In it, I will:
- Cover exactly how to install and configure PGP on OS X
- Demonstrate how to use PGP in real life
Why this tutorial is the best (ever)
- It works with every app. Unlike other tutorials for PGP, this tutorial does not care what program you use. If you install or uninstall apps, PGP will keep working. If you want to encrypt email, you can use any email program -- Mail.app, Thunderbird, Sparrow, Gmail, Airmail. Or, you can encrypt something besides email, you can do that too. You can write an encrypted letter in Word. You can encrypt a formula in Excel. You can encrypt a URL in Safari. You can encrypt a text with Messages. You can encrypt a bash command in Terminal. It does not matter.
- It is Mac friendly. There is a certain way of doing things on a Mac. If you're not a Mac fan, you won't understand. (That's okay.) Many of the tutorials I found for OS X are not Mac friendly. Many want you to install bloated, Windows-like software; or, install questionable add-ons. I've done the opposite. This PGP tutorial is super Mac friendly. It's PGP, installed the way Steve Jobs would have done it.
- Simple. Above all, this PGP setup is simple. Once you understand how it works, there is nothing you cannot do.
I looked into dozens of ways to set up PGP on my Mac. A lot of them suck for a plurality of reasons. Across the board, this is the best way for 95% of use cases.
Step 1: Install the GPGTools GPG Suite for OS X
This step is simple. Visit the GPGTools website and download the GPG Suite for OS X. Once downloaded, mount the DMG and run the 'Install'.
Inside the installer, you can stick with all default parameters save one exception. On the 'Installation Type' screen, press 'Customize'..
And uncheck the GPGMail package:
Then press 'Install.'
Step 2: Creating your very own PGP key
When the installer completes, a new app called 'GPG Keychain Access' will launch. A small window will pop up immediately and say: 'GPG Keychain Access would like to access your contacts.' Press 'OK.'
As soon as you press 'OK,' a second window will pop up that says 'Generate a new key pair.' Type in your name and your email address. Also, check the box that says 'Upload public key after generation.' Your window should look like this:
Expand the 'Advanced options' section. Incrase the key length to 4096 for extra NSA-proof'edness. Reduce the 'Expiration date' to 1 year from today. Your window should look like this:
Download AgreementsBEFORE DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE, OR OTHER CONTENT AVAILABLE ON THIS WEBSITE, YOU WILL NEED TO REVIEW AND AGREE UPON THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET BELOW. THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS MUST BE FOLLOWED WHEN USING THE SOFTWARE AND OTHER CONTENT PROVIDED.Please review and agree to the license agreement, README and/or other documents which BIXOLON’s software and/or content contain prior to installation or use.You agree to use the software and/or content only with corresponding BIXOLON branded models.You agree and acknowledge the use of BIXOLON’s software and other content is solely at your own risk.THE SOFTWARE and/or CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS'. ![Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/6/126606829/117778228.jpg)
![Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/6/126606829/117778228.jpg)
Press 'Generate key.'
As soon as you press 'Generate key,' the 'Enter passphrase' window will pop up. Okay, now this is important..
A brief word about your passphrase
The entire PGP encryption will rest on your passphrase. So, first and foremost.. don't use a passphrase that other people know! Pick something only you will know, and others can't guess. And once you have a passphrase selected, don't give it to other people.
Second, do not use a password, but rather a passphrase -- a sentence. For example, 'Pennstate55' is less preferable than 'I graduated from Penn State in 1955, ya heard?!' The longer your passphrase, the more secure your key.
Lastly, make sure your passphrase is something you can remember. Since it is long, there is a tendancy you might forget it. Don't. The consequences to that will be dire. Make sure you can remember your passphrase.
Back to Step 2..
Once you decide on your passphrase, type it in the 'Enter passphrase' window. Turn on the 'Show typing' option, so you can be 100% sure that you've typed in your passphrase without any spelling errors. When everything looks good, press 'OK:'
Will be asked to reenter the passphrase. Do it, and press 'OK:'
You will then see a message saying, 'We need to generate a lot of random bytes..' Wait for it to complete:
Et voilà! Your PGP key is ready to use:
Step 3: Set PGP keyboard shortcuts
Next, you will set up four global keyboard shortcuts in OS X.
Open System Preferences, select the 'Keyboard' pane, and go to the 'Shortucts' tab. On the left hand side, select 'Services.' Then, on the right, scroll down to the subsection 'Text' and look for a bunch of entries that start with 'OpenPGP:'
Go through each OpenPGP entry, unchecking each one and deleting the keyboard shortcut:
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![Best pgp for os x download Best pgp for os x download](/uploads/1/2/6/6/126606829/611948419.png)
Next, you will enable and set four shortcuts:
- Enable 'OpenPGP: Decrypt' and set its shortcut to ⌃⌥⌘- (i.e., control option command minus)
- Enable 'OpenPGP: Encrypt' and set its shortcut to ⌃⌥⌘= (i.e., control option command equals)
- Enable 'OpenPGP: Sign' and set its shortcut to ⌃⌥⌘[ (i.e., control option command open bracket)
- Enable 'OpenPGP: Verify' and set its shortcut to ⌃⌥⌘] (i.e., control option command close bracket)
Your keyboard shortcuts should now look like this:
That's it! You're done setting up PGP with OpenGPG on OS X! Now, we will discuss how to use what we set up.
In a terminal, run apt-cache search maven, to get all the available Maven packages: $ apt-cache search maven.libxmlbeans-maven-plugin-java-doc - Documentation for Maven XMLBeans Pluginmaven - Java software project management and comprehension toolmaven-debian-helper - Helper tools for building Debian packages with Mavenmaven2 - Java software project management and comprehension toolThe Maven package always comes with latest Apache Maven.Run command sudo apt-get install maven, to install the latest Apache Maven. /opt/apache-mavenArchive the Admin session: exitAdd Maven binaries to the path and append. Open the terminal and switch to the directory where the files were extracted to and then login as Super – User.Remove the tar.gz archive: rm Downloads/apache-maven.bin.tar.gzFix the permissions: chown -R root:wheel Downloads/apache-maven.Switch the Maven contents: mv Downloads/apache-maven. Maven for mac os x.
Step 4: How to send a secure email
You can encrypt anything with PGP, but most people will want to encrypt email. So, I will now take a few minutes to explain that. These steps can be transposed for any kind of encryption, from any app on your computer.
To secure an email in PGP, you will sign and encrypt the body of the message. You can just sign or just encrypt, but combining both operations will result in optimum security. Conversely, when you receive a PGP-secured email, you will decrypt and verify it. This is the 'opposite' of signing and encrypting.
Start off by writing your email:
Then, select the entire body of the email and press ⌃⌥⌘[ to sign it:
Next, open the GPG Keychain Access app. Press Command-F and type in the email address of the person you are sending your message to. This will search the public keyserver for your friend's PGP key:
If your friend has more than one key, select his most recent one:
You will receive a confirmation that your friend's key was successfully downloaded. You can press 'Close:'
You will now see your friend's public key in your keychain:
You can now quit GPG Keychain Access and return to writing the email.
Select the entire body of the email (everything, not just the part you wrote) and press ⌃⌥⌘= to encrypt it. A window will pop up, asking you who the recipient is. Select the friend's public key you just downloaded, and press 'OK:'
Your entire message is now encrypted! You can press 'Send' safely.
N.B. You will only need to download your friend's public key once. After that, it will always be available in your keychain until the key expires.
Step 4: How to receive a secure email
With our secure message sent, the recipient will now want to unscramble it. For the sake of this step, I will pretend I am the recipient.
I have recieved the message:
![Best Pgp For Os X Best Pgp For Os X](/uploads/1/2/6/6/126606829/913171977.png)
Copy the entire body, from, and including, '-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE---', to, and including, '-----END PGP MESSAGE---'. Open your favorite text editor, and paste it:
Now select the entire text, and press ⌃⌥⌘- to decrypt the message. You will immediately be prompted for your PGP passphrase. Type it in and press 'OK:'
You will now see the decrypted message!
Next, you can verify the signature. Highlight the entire text, and press ⌃⌥⌘]. You will see a message confirming the verification:
You can press 'OK.'
What does encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify mean?
Now that you know how to sign and encrypt outgoing messages, and decrypt and verify incoming ones, let us discuss what these terms mean.
Encrypt takes your secret key and the recipient's public key, and scrambles a message. The scrambled text is secure from prying eyes. The sender always encrypts.
Decrypt takes an encrypted message, combined with the your secret key and the sender's public key, and descrambles it. The recipient always decrypts.
Encrypt and decrypt can be thought of as opposites.
Signing a message lets the recipient know that you (the person with your email address and public key) acutally authored the message. Signing also provides additional cryptographic integrity: it ensures that no one has tampered with the encryption. The sender always signs a message.
Verifying a message is the process of analyzing a signed message, to determine if the signing is true.
Signing and verifying can be thought of as opposites.
When should I sign? When should I encrypt?
It is unnecessary to sign and encrypt every outgoing email. Well, then: when should you sign? And when should you encrypt? And when should you do nothing?
You have three rational choices when you are sending a message:
- Do nothing. If the contents of the email are public (non-confidential), and the recipient does not care whether you or an impostor sent the message, then do nothing. You can send the message as you've sent messages your whole life: in plain text.
- Sign, but don't encrypt. If the contents of the email are public (non-confidential), but the recipient wants assurance that you -- not an impostor -- actually sent the message, then you should sign but not encrypt. Simply follow the tutorial above, skipping over the encryption and decryption steps.
- Sign and encrypt. If the contents of the email are confidential, sign and encrypt. It does not matter whether the recipient wants assurance that you sent the message -- always sign when you encrpt.
I do nothing for 90% of emails I send; security is just not necessary. The remaining 10% of the time, I sign and encrypt. Whenever there is confidential information -- business plans, credit card numbers, bank numbers, social security numbers, corporate strategies, etc. -- I sign and encrypt. I define confidential information loosely, because I'd rather sign and encrypt unnecessarily than do nothing and leak sensitive information. As for the third option, I rarely sign, but do not encrypt. Your profession may warrant radically different usage of PGP.
Why don't you use PGP MIME attachments? Why don't you use the Mail.app PGP plugin?
Some PGP nerds prefer sending PGP with attachments (a.k.a.,
PGP MIME
type), instead of using plain text (a.k.a., PGP INLINE
).Conversely, some PGP
n00bs
want to know why I don't recommend using a PGP plugin for their email client (i.e., the Mail.app PGP plugin).Here's why:
- Attachments are a pain in the ass.
- People who use mail plugins for encryption have no idea how they work; the result is a false sense of security.
- Inline text works places where attachments don't (the shell, Facebook, iMessage, etc.).
- The majority of people who have sent me
MIME
test emails using the Mail.app plugins sent undecryptable messages, because they have no idea what they're doing or how it works. - When a plugin generates an attachment and sends it before you can see what is going on, you have no idea what is happening or if it is working.
- Lots of applications and email clients do not have PGP built in, so you need inline anyway.
Try it out! Email me.
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My email address is [email protected]. Try sending me an encrypted, signed email. I'll reply.
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Ntfs software for mac sierra. If my tutorial was helpful, please send me a small donation through PayPal!