PGP Decrypt

Description

The goal of the process encrypt & sign / decrypt & verify a document is:

  1. The sender is sure that only the recipient can decrypt it.
  2. The recipient can authenticate the document as coming from the sender.

Note: The signature is optional because a document can be encrypted without a signature. In such a case, there is no verification step.

An overview of the process is shown below:

Pgp Overall Process

The PGP Decrypt action implements the right part of the process above. It allows a flow to perform a PGP decryption on a string of ciphertext. There is also the option to verify the signature for additional authentication.

PGP Decrypt basic configuration

Usage

The PGP Decrypt action converts ciphertext back to plaintext. This makes it possible to retrieve previously encrypted data.

  1. Insert ciphertext data inside File content (you can also insert data referring to a previous step using the [+] Add button).
  2. Insert the matching public and private RSA/PGP key (received from a third party service or one that you have previously generated).
  3. If the private key is optionally protected, you must provide the passphrase.

Supported keys

Extension Kit supports both RSA and PGP keys for both decrypting and verifying. Note that the key content is shortened for documentation purposes.

Keys must be used as they are generated, with no modifications done in them to avoid faulty keys.

Example of Public RSA key:

-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
j+TgseJangU6imik5mL0qYg9523FcukXfS9MH+qgisF1DotW1C9BADUKd0okqWUZ [...]
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----

Example of Private RSA key:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIJKAIBAAKCAgEAkx8U2Yv7KUQbzspGzcNv/s8SY168tVK55HjG/lKDaBi0SWPi [...]
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Example of Public PGP key:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: Keybase OpenPGP v1.0.0
Comment: https://keybase.io/crypto

xsFNBGMz9zABEADLYAjUH0+kZQtjMuDcZ3r4+IarVQRT+4+nFgMOZd1T+Laomz24 [...]

-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Example of Private PGP key:

-----BEGIN PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
Version: Keybase OpenPGP v1.0.0
Comment: https://keybase.io/crypto

xcaGBGMz9zABEADLYAjUH0+kZQtjMuDcZ3r4+IarVQRT+4+nFgMOZd1T+Laomz24 [...]

-----END PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----

Note: The type of key being used is automatically determined by the system. User action is not required.

Signature (optional)

The signature verification authenticates the user by validating the signature using the public PGP key of the message signer. Both RSA and PGP keys are supported for signing.

PGP Decrypt Signature

You can Insert a Signature public key by clicking on the corresponding drop down panel.