Does GPG Ever Store RSA Secret Keys On The Disk In Plain?

Novak Boškov boskov at bu.edu
Mon Dec 21 23:02:48 CET 2020


Hi Annie,

I am not sure that I follow.

First, it looks like multiple exports _do_ result in the exactly same
export data:

> FIRST=$(gpg --export-secret-keys --armor <my_key_id>)
> SECOND=$(gpg --export-secret-keys --armor <my_key_id>)
> if [ "$FIRST" == "$SECOND" ]; then echo "Outputs are equal"; fi
> Outputs are equal

Which makes perfect sense to me. I would indeed expect my secret key
encrypted with my passphrase to be the same across multiple invocations
of the export command.

If a salt is used, how come that I can take my key that I've gotten
through a `gpg --export-secret-keys --armor ...` call and import it on a
different machine using only my passphrase?

Could you please elaborate a bit more on this or/and provide some useful
resources?

Best regards,
Novak
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