// COMPLETE THREAD

PGP secret keys

2 expanded posts · every known parent and child

NODE 08d1a92ePGP secret keys anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.comWed, 3 Jul 1996 01:45:04 +0800

Could someone post a pointer to a FAQ that tells what to do if you loose
your secret key file?  How can you regenerate your private key so that the
userid number still matches the public key that has been distributed??

NODE f0f9859dRe: PGP secret keys Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>Wed, 3 Jul 1996 02:30:42 +0800

> Could someone post a pointer to a FAQ that tells what to do if you loose
> your secret key file?  How can you regenerate your private key so that the
> userid number still matches the public key that has been distributed??

Pretty much you are SOL.  To re-create the secring from the pubring
you need to find the secret components of your secret key.  The only
known way of doing that is factoring you key.  How big is it?  If it
is in the range of 384-512 bits, then we can probably reproduce your
secring in about a year.  If its any bigger than that, all you can
really do is generate a new key.

You don't want to generate a key that has the same keyID, since it
wont be able to decrypt any messages that the old one could anyways.

Enjoy!

-derek