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Keyring Analysis FAQ

• What is PGP/GPG?
• How do I read the raw analysis file?
• Why isn't my key included in this analysis?
• I should be in the strongly connected set, my key is on public keyservers, but it still isn't in the report. Why?
• How can I get someone's public key that I found here?
• Why don't you analyze <my idea>?

What is PGP/GPG?

PGP stands for "Pretty Good Privacy", an encryption standard created by Phil Zimmermann, a now famous individual who faced great opposition to the adoption of strong encryption as a standard that was available to all people. You can find the official versions of PGP at www.pgp.com. There is a GNU free implementation of this same encryption called GNU Privacy Guard, commonly referred to as GPG, available at www.gnupg.org.

How do I read the raw analysis file?

The raw file is a sorted four column text table with the following values:

• Overall ranking (1 to sizeof(strong set))
• First 32 bits of key identifier, in hex format
• Last 32 bits of key identifier, in hex format (this is what you normally see as the key ID in most programs)
• Mean Shortest Distance to this key from the strong set

The key identifiers are in hex, but not zero padded, sorry. If the first digit(s) are 0, they are left blank. (Just a C printf thing, should be easy to change with sed if you need to.)

Why isn't my key included in this analysis?

The most likely reason for this is that your key isn't signed by the "strong set". It will be necessary to signed by one of the keys in the strongly connected set.

I can also only check keys that I can find. If you haven't pushed your key to a large keyserver, then I won't be able to include it. If you push your key to one of these keyservers, then it should be included in the next analysis.

I should be signed by a key in the strongly connected set, my key is on public keyservers, but it still isn't in the report. Why?

Verify that your key is on _this_ public keyserver. It is possible that it somehow isn't synced between servers. This server is at pgp.dtype.org (or www.us.pgp.net) and syncs with other keyservers in the pgp.net ring. If you need to, just re-push your key to this server to guarantee that it is included in the next analysis.

Also be sure that your key is self signed. This is very important in general, and is enforced by this report.

How can I get someone's public key that I found here?

Most PGP/GPG software allows you to specify a keyserver from which to query public keys if they aren't found in your local keyring. This keyserver is pgp.dtype.org (or wwwkeys.us.pgp.net). You should be able to grab these keys from any server that keeps itself relatively up-to-date though.

A web interface is also available.

Why don't you analyze <my idea>?

Maybe I will!

A lot of things are simply too expensive for me to analyze right now, but if you know something that is reasonable, or have a better way to analyze something that I've just missed, please let me know. Each month I expect to have more data available.