How does PGP passphrase work?
PGP uses a passphrase to encrypt your private key on your machine. Your private key is encrypted on your disk using a hash of your passphrase as the secret key. You use the passphrase to decrypt and use your private key. A passphrase should be hard for you to forget and difficult for others to guess.
How do I set a PGP passphrase?
Answer
- Right-click the PGP Desktop Lock icon in the system tray (lower right hand corner).
- In the PGP Desktop window, find the category for PGP Disk on the left.
- Proceed by typing your current passphrase in the Enter Passphrase box.
- The Create Passphrase dialog box is displayed.
- Click Finish.
What happens when you change your PGP passphrase?
PGP uses a passphrase to encrypt your private key on your machine. Your private key is encrypted on your disk using a hash of your passphrase as the secret key. You use the passphrase to decrypt and use your private key. When you change your passphrase, the protection aroundyour private key has been altered, but the key itself has not.
How is the private key encrypted in PGP?
PGP uses a passphrase to encrypt your private key on your machine. Your private key is encrypted on your disk using a hash of your passphrase as the secret key. You use the passphrase to decrypt and use your private key.
How is the PGP key passphrase cached in Windows?
Once a user key has been authenticated with the passphrase, a policy to cache the key passphrase is used, such that the key passphrase will be cached for the duration of the Windows session, for X number of minutes, or not at all.
What happens when you change your passphrase on a computer?
When you change your passphrase, the protection around your private key has been altered, but the key itself has not. Consequently, the matching public key is still valid, since its corresponding private key is unchanged.