Informal Keysigning

An Informal Keysigning is a way to exchange KeyIDs between people who already know each other, or trust each other well enough to accept a printed strip of paper listing the KeyID, UserIDs and key fingerprint.

This is a fingerprint strip created with the command gpg --fingerprint 0xD2CCE5EA

pub   1024D/D2CCE5EA 1999-06-24
      Key fingerprint = 04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115  26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA
uid                  Bob Jonkman <bjonkman@sobac.com>
uid                  Bob Jonkman <bob@jonkman.ca>
uid                  Bob Jonkman's DH/DSS key
sub   2048g/1A237CC4 1999-06-24

The command gpg-key2ps 0xD2CCE5EA > fingerprint.ps will create a page full of fingerprint strips. gpg-key2ps is available in the Debian package signing-party.

The actual key signing doesn't need to be done at the same time the fingerprint strips are exchanged. But when you do sign the key ID 0xD2CCE5EA be sure that its key fingerprint is the same one on the fingerprint strip.

To sign the public key ID 0xD2CCE5EA with your default private key use the command:

gpg --sign-key 0xD2CCE5EA

At the prompt Really sign all user IDs? type Y -- it is unusual not to sign all User IDs.

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See Also:

Formal Keysigning