--- title: "Renewing my GPG Keys" date: 2023-12-28T11:46:33-05:00 draft: false tags: [] math: false medium_enabled: false --- Recently I let my GPG keys expire. I noticed this when I was working on a project, and when I went to [automatically sign my commits](/blog/signingcommits/) -- git threw an error at me. Since I was working at the time, I did the not-so-great practice of disabling the signing feature. Having keys automatically expire is annoying. Though, it does give me a chance to reflect if these keys are still useful to me. Currently I use GPG keys for: - Code signing - Receiving encrypted messages - [Decentralized Identity](/blog/decentralized-identity-pgp-keyoxide/) So to me, having a GPG key is still worth it. Now to go about renewing my keys. This post will show how I go about the renewing process itself and what services I update. Mostly for me in the future. ## Renewing my GPG key First, find your key ```bash gpg --list-keys ``` ``` /home/brandon/.gnupg/pubring.kbx ------------------------------ pub ed25519 2022-12-14 [SC] [expires: 2023-12-14] 5F37830BFA46FF7881F47AC78DF79C3DC5FC658A uid [ultimate] Brandon Rozek uid [ultimate] Brandon Rozek sub cv25519 2022-12-14 [E] [expires: 2023-12-14] sub dsa2048 2022-12-17 [S] [expires: 2023-12-14] ``` The fingerprint is the line below `pub` and for me starts with `5F37`. Let's store that in a variable for easy reference later. ```bash export FPR=5F37830BFA46FF7881F47AC78DF79C3DC5FC658A ``` If we want to extend the expiration date to a year from today, we can use the following command: ```bash gpg --quick-set-expire $FPR 1y ``` Alternatively, you can specify an exact date with the ISO format `YYYY-MM-DD` or keep it relative with respect to days `d`, weeks `w`, and months `m`. When we check the key again, we should see an updated expiration date ```bash gpg --list-keys ``` ``` /home/brandon/.gnupg/pubring.kbx ------------------------------ pub ed25519 2022-12-14 [SC] [expires: 2024-12-28] 5F37830BFA46FF7881F47AC78DF79C3DC5FC658A uid [ultimate] Brandon Rozek uid [ultimate] Brandon Rozek sub cv25519 2022-12-14 [E] [expires: 2023-12-14] sub dsa2048 2022-12-17 [S] [expires: 2023-12-14] ``` Notice that the two subkeys still have the old expiration date. We'll need to update that as well. We'll need to get their fingergrints with the following command ```bash gpg --list-keys --verbose --with-subkey-fingerprints ``` ``` gpg: enabled compatibility flags: gpg: using pgp trust model /home/rozek/.gnupg/pubring.kbx ------------------------------ pub ed25519 2022-12-14 [SC] [expires: 2024-12-27] 5F37830BFA46FF7881F47AC78DF79C3DC5FC658A uid [ultimate] Brandon Rozek uid [ultimate] Brandon Rozek sub cv25519 2022-12-14 [E] [expires: 2023-12-14] D502A12A65F9997DAE4609C97DAEAD7BFFA8F9D3 sub dsa2048 2022-12-17 [S] [expires: 2023-12-14] 89859D1EDF70D6DC2F6BFFF226E457DA82C9F480 ``` Store the fingerprints again for easy reference: ```bash export SFPR1=D502A12A65F9997DAE4609C97DAEAD7BFFA8F9D3 export SFPR2=89859D1EDF70D6DC2F6BFFF226E457DA82C9F480 ``` Extend the expiration of the subkeys: ```bash gpg --quick-set-expire $FPR 1y $SFPR1 gpg --quick-set-expire $FPR 1y $SFPR2 ``` ## Updating Services I currently allow for two ways to query my keys: OpenGPG keyserver and WKD. To update my keys on my own WKD keyserver, I followed the steps in my [tutorial on WKD](/blog/decentralized-pgp-keys-wkd). For OpenGPG, I followed the instructions on their [usage page](https://keys.openpgp.org/about/usage): ```bash gpg --export your_address@example.net | curl -T - https://keys.openpgp.org ``` ## References https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg24/gpg.1.html https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2023/07/13/extending-an-expired-gpg-key/ https://brandonrozek.com/blog/decentralized-pgp-keys-wkd/ https://keys.openpgp.org/about/usage