Paperkey for Revocation Certificates? (Feature-Request :-)

[David Shaw]

On Oct 5, 2008, at 8:11 PM, Faramir wrote:

>>    * The file format is now included as part of the base16 output, as
>>      there is no guarantee that this program will be on-hand when a
>>      reconstruction is necessary.  The format can also be displayed
>>      via the --file-format command.  Suggested by Brendan Kidwell.
>
>  So... the key can be reconstructed without using paperkey? How could
> it be done?

You could theoretically reconstruct the key using any reasonable  
editor that works on binary files.  Paperkey just does the work for  
you.  Brendan pointed out, rather reasonably, that after a key is  
archived on paper for a long time, there may not be a copy of paperkey  
handy to restore it.  Thus, paperkey prints out the file format (as a  
human-readable comment) before the actual secret key data.  It's just  
there in case someone needs it someday.

David