Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
To understand how PGP email works, you first need to know the basics of public/private key encryption, a.k.a. RSA cryptography (if you already know, you can skip this paragraph). It might be compared to a P.O. box where everyone can see your box number, but only you know the combination to get in. In an RSA public/private key pair, the public key can be used to encrypt information; once encrypted, the only thing that can decode the message is the private key. PGP is the email application for the RSA concept. I can send my friend an encrypted message without going to the trouble of driving to their house with a flashdrive to agree on a key. All my client software has to do is find my friend's public key from a server, and the rest is a breeze.
To get started on this, you first need to have Thunderbird installed. If not, go ahead and install it by typing in a terminal window:
sudo apt-get install thunderbird
Next, install enigmail
sudo apt-get install enigmail
Assuming that you now have your email setup in Thunderbird, launch the application and go to Menu>Enigmail>Setup Wizard.
Proceed by setting up your PGP key.
Enter an 8 digit passphrase to encrypt your private key.
Your computer will then generate a 4096-bit RSA keypair.
After generating the key, follow through by saving the Revocation Certificate somewhere safe such as a flash drive.
You're almost done! All that remains now is backing up your private key, and publishing your public key to a few servers so that your friend’s email client can automatically download it.
To backup your private key, go to (in Thunderbird) Menu>Enigmail>Key Management. Select your key and then, under Key Management, go to File>Export Keys to File, and click Export Secret Keys.
Again, I recommend that offline storage would work best such as a flash drive. Now, to export your public key to a keyserver, without closing the Key Management window, select your key and go to Keyserver>Upload Public Keys.
There you should see a list of keyservers to choose from. Any of the three will work fine, but it also wouldn't be a bad idea to upload your public key to all of the servers that are listed.
Now you are all set to start receiving encrypted PGP emails! Also, when you go to send someone an encrypted message, Thunderbird will help you find their public key on one of the servers. With a key length of 4096-bit, this totally makes your private messaging military grade.