2026-11-15 –, Workshop Room #4#
This workshop gives an overview about modern management of OpenPGP Keys. Online documentation suggests that you have an offline key and subkeys, the latter preferably on a hardware device. But there is hardly one place where there are hands-on instructions to create those. This workshop intends to have participants aquire that experience.
This workshop will not give more than a "you know that already" appraoch to public key cryptography. It will begin with OpenPGP basics. The speaker is a Debian Developer, so his main application of OpenPGP is signing things, but of course encryption will be handled as well. The practical exercises will be done on Linux.
The participants will get an overview about what are best practises regarding OpenPGP keys:
- an offline (certification only) primary key that will never see the internet and
- subkeys (signature, encryption, authentication) that will be created on the offline system and then transfered to a OpenPGP Smart Card (such as a Yubikey).
- how to build and use an offline, immutable Linux system (based on Debian Live on a Raspberry Pi 4)
- Introduction to OpenPGP Smart Cards
The workshop will also suggest workarounds for the numerous gotchas the speaker experienced on his own journey to OpenPGP best practises.
Af the end of the talk, participants will have a primary key with subkeys and will have had the experience of exchanging keys, signatures and encrypted messages via a pad. It is suggested to throw away all key material after the workshop and to start over again in a quiet place with lots of concentration about doing things right.
a Linux system with GnuPG and Sequoia PGP installed, optionally an OpenPGP Smartcard such as a Yubikey
Marc Haber is a Freelance IT Consultant based near Heidelberg, Germany. With 30 years of experience, he has a strong focus on Linux and Networking and is a Debian Developer. He likes his approach to security to be called "pragmatic" and he has a tendency to overengineer things. His affiliation with DENOG started more than 20 years ago.
When his lap is not occupied by the laptop, it is usually populated by one of four cats, and he enjoy tinkering in his smart home and ballroom dancing with his wife.