How to Export Private Secret ASC Key to Decrypt GPG Files

Question

Background  My boss has tried exporting an ASC key to me with public and private parts but whenever I get the file the private part never loads up and it won t decrypt any files   We have tried Exporting the ASC Key using     Windows Application Kleopatra 2 1  included in gpg4win  Windows Application GNU Privacy Assistant  included in gpg4win            Error   Decryption failed  Secret Key Not available       How do you properly export a secret or private asc key to decrypt gpg files

User · Answer

I think you had not yet import the private key as the message error said  To import public private key from gnupg   gpg --import mypub key gpg --allow-secret-key-import --import myprv key

User · Answer

Similar to  Wolfram J s answer  here is a method to encrypt your private key with a passphrase   gpg --output - --armor --export  KEYID         gpg --output private key asc --armor --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256   And a corresponding method to decrypt   gpg private key asc

User · Answer

You can export the private key with the command-line tool from GPG  It works on the Windows-shell  Use the following command   gpg --export-secret-keys   A normal export with --export will not include any private keys  therefore you have to use --export-secret-keys   Edit   To sum up the information given in my comments  this is the command that allows you to export a specific key with the ID 1234ABCD to the file secret asc   gpg --export-secret-keys --armor 1234ABCD  gt  secret asc   You can find the ID that you need using the following command  The ID is the second part of the second column   gpg --list-keys   To Export just 1 specific secret key instead of all of them   gpg --export-secret-keys keyIDNumber  gt  exportedKeyFilename asc   keyIDNumber is the number of the key id for the desired key you are trying to export

User · Answer

All the above replies are correct  but might be missing one crucial step  you need to edit the imported key and  ultimately trust  that key  gpg --edit-key  keyIDNumber  gpg gt  trust  Please decide how far you trust this user to correctly verify other users  keys  by looking at passports  checking fingerprints from different sources  etc      1   I don t know or won t say   2   I do NOT trust   3   I trust marginally   4   I trust fully   5   I trust ultimately   m   back to the main menu   and select 5 to enable that imported private key as one of your keys

User · Answer

1 Export a Secret Key  this is what your boss should have done for you   gpg --export-secret-keys yourKeyName  gt  privateKey asc   2 Import Secret Key  import your privateKey   gpg --import privateKey asc   3 Not done yet  you still need to ultimately trust a key  You will need to make sure that you also ultimately trust a key   gpg --edit-key yourKeyName   Enter trust  5  y  and then quit  Source  https   medium com  GalarnykMichael public-key-asymmetric-cryptography-using-gpg-5a8d914c9bca

User · Answer

See the treatment by Dark Otter  https   montemazuma wordpress com 2010 03 01 moving-a-gpg-key-privately   If the site is down use reference the archive org backup   https   web archive org web 20170518155052 https   montemazuma wordpress com 2010 03 01 moving-a-gpg-key-privately   which includes a reasonably secure way to transfer keys  You could put that recommendation into shell-scripts shown below for repeated use   First get the KEYID you want from the list shown by    gpg -K   From the resulting list note the KEYID  the 8 hexadecimals following sec  you need for transfer   Then envoke the tested shell scipts  export private key  on the first account and generate your pubkey gpg   keys asc  Subsequently invoke on the second account  import private key   Here is their content shown with cat  copy  amp  paste content      cat export private key  gpg -K echo  select private key  read KEYID gpg --output pubkey gpg --export  KEYID echo REMEMBER THE COMING PASS-PHRASE gpg --output - --export-secret-key  KEYID        cat pubkey gpg -        gpg --armor --output keys asc --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 ls -l pubkey gpg keys asc                       E X P O R T   P R I V A T E   K E Y                          Now tranfer by some means the  pubkey gpg   if needed  and the private  keys asc  to the second account and envoke the below-shown program     cat import private key  gpg --no-use-agent --output - keys asc   gpg --import                      I M P O R T   P R I V A T E   K E Y                           In Otter s spirit  And that  should be  that

User · Answer

this ended up working for me           gpg -a --export-secret-keys  gt  exportedKeyFilename asc    you can name keyfilename asc by any name as long as you keep on the  asc extension  this command copies all secret-keys on a user s computer to keyfilename asc in the working directory of where the command was called    To Export just 1 specific secret key instead of all of them      gpg -a --export-secret-keys keyIDNumber  gt  exportedKeyFilename asc   keyIDNumber is the number of the key id for the desired key you are trying to export

[encryption] How to Export Private / Secret ASC Key to Decrypt GPG Files

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