generate keys on smartcard?

[Werner Koch]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 13:31:08 +0100 (MET), joschua10  said:

> I would like to know if GnuPG is going to support the following feature:
> to generate the keys on a smartcard. this is different from generating the

Coincidently, I had private discussion on this yesterday. 

Although that I don't trust the integrated RNGs because there is a
real chance that they fail without noticing and the quality of the
random can't be that good (or is based on a seed possibly known by the
vendor/distributor), we will try to implement this for those cards.
The effect of a failed RNG does not seem to be too problematic if a
lot of smartcards are used this way.

The better solution is to have a special box for key generation or as
a cost effective solution, a bootable CDROM with all the required
software.

> keys with GnuPG and storing them an a smartcard/memorycard. Im talking about
> the way that the keys will never leave the smartcard.

Even if a key was uploaded to the smartcard it won't be possible to
retrieve it again.

> Will GnuPG support this possibility in the future, how long I have to wait?

I have no estimation. It will certainly help to purchase maintenance
points at https://order.kagi.com/?P3G .


Salam-Shalom,

   Werner