[Announce] GnuPG 2.1.16 released

Werner Koch wk at gnupg.org
Fri Nov 18 22:19:54 CET 2016


Hello!

The GnuPG team is pleased to announce the availability of a new release
of GnuPG modern: Version 2.1.16.  See below for a list of new features
and bug fixes.


About GnuPG
=============

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is a complete and free implementation
of the OpenPGP standard which is commonly abbreviated as PGP.

GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign data and communication, features a
versatile key management system as well as access modules for public key
directories.  GnuPG itself is a command line tool with features for easy
integration with other applications.  A wealth of frontend applications
and libraries making use of GnuPG are available.  Since version 2 GnuPG
provides support for S/MIME and Secure Shell in addition to OpenPGP.

GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it respects your freedom). It can
be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License.

Three different branches of GnuPG are actively maintained:

- GnuPG "modern" (2.1) comes with the latest features and is suggested
  for most users.  This announcement is about this branch.

- GnuPG "stable" (2.0) is the currently mostly used branch which will be
  maintain until 2017-12-31.

- GnuPG "classic" (1.4) is a simplified version of GnuPG, required on
  very old platforms or to decrypt data created with PGP-2 keys.

You may not install "modern" (2.1) and "stable" (2.0) at the same time.
However, it is possible to install "classic" (1.4) along with any of the
other versions.


Noteworthy changes in version 2.1.16
====================================

 * gpg: New algorithm for selecting the best ranked public key when
   using a mail address with -r, -R, or --locate-key.

 * gpg: New option --with-tofu-info to print a new "tfs" record in
   colon formatted key listings.

 * gpg: New option --compliance as an alternative way to specify
   options like --rfc2440, --rfc4880, et al.

 * gpg: Many changes to the TOFU implementation.

 * gpg: Improve usability of --quick-gen-key.

 * gpg: In --verbose mode print a diagnostic when a pinentry is
   launched.

 * gpg: Remove code which warns for old versions of gnome-keyring.

 * gpg: New option --override-session-key-fd.

 * gpg: Option --output does now work with --verify.

 * gpgv: New option --output to allow saving the verified data.

 * gpgv: New option --enable-special-filenames.

 * agent, dirmngr: New --supervised mode for use by systemd and alike.

 * agent: By default listen on all available sockets using standard
   names.

 * agent: Invoke scdaemon with --homedir.

 * dirmngr: On Linux now detects the removal of its own socket and
   terminates.

 * scd: Support ECC key generation.

 * scd: Support more card readers.

 * dirmngr: New option --allow-version-check to download a software
   version database in the background.

 * dirmngr: Use system provided CAs if no --hkp-cacert is given.

 * dirmngr: Use a default keyserver if none is explicitly set

 * gpgconf: New command --query-swdb to check software versions
   against an copy of an online database.

 * gpgconf: Print the socket directory with --list-dirs.

 * tools: The WKS tools now support draft version -02.

 * tools: Always build gpg-wks-client and install under libexec.

 * tools: New option --supported for gpg-wks-client.

 * The log-file option now accepts a value "socket://" to log to the
   socket named "S.log" in the standard socket directory.

 * Provide fake pinentries for use by tests cases of downstream
   developers.

 * Fixed many bugs and regressions.

 * Many changes and improvements for the test suite.

A detailed description of the changes found in the 2.1 branch can be
found at <https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html>.

Please be aware that there are still known bugs which we are working on.
Check https://bugs.gnupg.org, https://wiki.gnupg.org, and the mailing
list archives for known problems and workarounds.


Getting the Software
====================

Please follow the instructions found at <https://gnupg.org/download/> or
read on:

GnuPG 2.1.16 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or
direct from its primary FTP server.  The list of mirrors can be found at
<https://gnupg.org/download/mirrors.html>.  Note that GnuPG is not
available at ftp.gnu.org.

The GnuPG source code compressed using BZIP2 and its OpenPGP signature
are available here:

 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2  (5704k)
 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2.sig
or here:
 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2
 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2.sig

An installer for Windows without any graphical frontend except for a
very minimal Pinentry tool is available here:

 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.16_20161118.exe  (3684k)
 ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.16_20161118.exe.sig
or here
 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.16_20161118.exe
 https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32-2.1.16_20161118.exe.sig

The source used to build the Windows installer can be found in the same
directory with a ".tar.xz" suffix.  This Windows installer comes with
TOFU support, translations, and support for Tor; it is still missing
HKPS and Web Key Directory support, though.


Checking the Integrity
======================

In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to
install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of
the following ways:

 * If you already have a version of GnuPG installed, you can simply
   verify the supplied signature.  For example to verify the signature
   of the file gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

     gpg --verify gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2.sig gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2

   This checks whether the signature file matches the source file.
   You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and
   made by one or more of the release signing keys.  Make sure that
   this is a valid key, either by matching the shown fingerprint
   against a trustworthy list of valid release signing keys or by
   checking that the key has been signed by trustworthy other keys.
   See the end of this mail for information on the signing keys.

 * If you are not able to use an existing version of GnuPG, you have
   to verify the SHA-1 checksum.  On Unix systems the command to do
   this is either "sha1sum" or "shasum".  Assuming you downloaded the
   file gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2, you run the command like this:

     sha1sum gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2

   and check that the output matches the next line:

67540161c9fe289153c4a5ea60f7cdce0ef48897  gnupg-2.1.16.tar.bz2
50b0bd286faa90e5c71417b5f2f36cf5de964084  gnupg-w32-2.1.16_20161118.exe
dd7d33a941c47574830df2e35503cd8ba0788eda  gnupg-w32-2.1.16_20161118.tar.xz


Internationalization
====================

This version of GnuPG has support for 26 languages with Chinese, Czech,
French, German, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, and Ukrainian being almost
completely translated.  Due to expected changes in the next release some
strings pertaining to the TOFU code are not translated in this version.


Documentation
=============

If you used GnuPG in the past you should read the description of
changes and new features at doc/whats-new-in-2.1.txt or online at

  https://gnupg.org/faq/whats-new-in-2.1.html

The file gnupg.info has the complete user manual of the system.
Separate man pages are included as well but they have not all the
details available as are the manual.  It is also possible to read the
complete manual online in HTML format at

  https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/

or in Portable Document Format at

  https://gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg.pdf .

The chapters on gpg-agent, gpg and gpgsm include information on how
to set up the whole thing.  You may also want search the GnuPG mailing
list archives or ask on the gnupg-users mailing lists for advise on
how to solve problems.  Many of the new features are around for
several years and thus enough public knowledge is already available.

You may also want to follow our postings at <https://gnupg.org/blob/>
and <https://twitter.com/gnupg>.


Support
========

Please consult the archive of the gnupg-users mailing list before
reporting a bug <https://gnupg.org/documentation/mailing-lists.html>.
We suggest to send bug reports for a new release to this list in favor
of filing a bug at <https://bugs.gnupg.org>.  If you need commercial
support check out <https://gnupg.org/service.html>.

If you are a developer and you need a certain feature for your project,
please do not hesitate to bring it to the gnupg-devel mailing list for
discussion.

Maintenance and development of GnuPG is mostly financed by donations.
The GnuPG project employs 3 full-time developers, one part-timer, and
one contractor.  They all work exclusivly on GnuPG and closely related
software like Libgcrypt, GPGME, and GPA.  Please consider to donate via:

                  https://gnupg.org/donate/


Thanks
======

We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it
testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, administering the
servers, spreading the word, answering questions on the mailing
lists, and donating money.


For the GnuPG hackers,

   Werner


p.s.
This is an announcement only mailing list.  Please send replies only to
the gnupg-users'at'gnupg.org mailing list.

p.p.s 
List of Release Signing Keys:

To guarantee that a downloaded GnuPG version has not been tampered by
malicious entities we provide signature files for all tarballs and
binary versions.  The keys are also signed by the long term keys of
their respective owners.  Current releases are signed by one or more
of these four keys:

  2048R/4F25E3B6 2011-01-12 [expires: 2019-12-31]
  Key fingerprint = D869 2123 C406 5DEA 5E0F  3AB5 249B 39D2 4F25 E3B6
  Werner Koch (dist sig)

  rsa2048/E0856959 2014-10-29 [expires: 2019-12-31]
  Key fingerprint = 46CC 7308 65BB 5C78 EBAB  ADCF 0437 6F3E E085 6959
  David Shaw (GnuPG Release Signing Key) <dshaw 'at' jabberwocky.com>

  rsa2048/33BD3F06 2014-10-29 [expires: 2020-10-30]
  Key fingerprint = 031E C253 6E58 0D8E A286  A9F2 2071 B08A 33BD 3F06
  NIIBE Yutaka (GnuPG Release Key) <gniibe 'at' fsij.org>

  rsa2048/7EFD60D9 2014-10-19 [expires: 2020-12-31]
  Key fingerprint = D238 EA65 D64C 67ED 4C30  73F2 8A86 1B1C 7EFD 60D9
  Werner Koch (Release Signing Key)

You may retrieve these keys from a keyserver using this command

  gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys  \
                  249B39D24F25E3B6 04376F3EE0856959 \
                  2071B08A33BD3F06 8A861B1C7EFD60D9

The keys are also available at https://gnupg.org/signature_key.html and
in any recently released GnuPG tarball in the file g10/distsigkey.gpg .
Note that this mail has been signed by a different key.


Salam-Shalom,

   Werner

-- 
Die Gedanken sind frei.  Ausnahmen regelt ein Bundesgesetz.
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