Release Digest: GNU, July 27, 2004

GnuPG 1.2.5

Hello!
We are pleased to announce the availability of a new stable GnuPG release: Version 1.2.5

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage. It is a complete and free replacement of PGP and can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the proposed OpenPGP Internet standard as described in RFC2440.

This is mainly a bug fix release; for details see the "What's New" section below.

Getting the Software

Please follow the instructions found at http://www.gnupg.org/download/ or read on:

GnuPG 1.2.5 may be downloaded from one of the GnuPG mirror sites or direct from ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt. The list of mirrors can be found at http://www.gnupg.org/mirrors.html. Note, that GnuPG is not available at ftp.gnu.org/.

On the mirrors you should find the following files in the gnupg directory:

gnupg-1.2.5.tar.bz2 (2430k)
gnupg-1.2.5.tar.bz2.sig

GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and OpenPGP signature.

gnupg-1.2.5.tar.gz (3559k)
gnupg-1.2.5.tar.gz.sig

GnuPG source compressed using GZIP and OpenPGP signature.

gnupg-1.2.4-1.2.5.diff.gz (979k)

A patch file to upgrade a 1.2.4 GnuPG source. This file is signed; you have to use GnuPG > 0.9.5 to verify the signature. GnuPG has a feature to allow clear signed patch files which can still be processed by the patch utility.

Select one of them. To shorten the download time, you probably want to get the BZIP2 compressed file. Please try another mirror if exceptional your mirror is not yet up to date.

In the binary directory, you should find these files:

gnupg-w32cli-1.2.5.zip/ (1468k)
gnupg-w32cli-1.2.5.zip.sig/

GnuPG compiled for Microsoft Windows and OpenPGP signature. Note that this is a command line version and comes without a graphical installer tool. You have to use an UNZIP utility to extract the files and install them manually. The included file README.W32 has further instructions.

Checking the Integrity

In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of the following ways:

• If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you can simply check the supplied signature. For example to check the signature of the file gnupg-1.2.4.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

gpg --verify gnupg-1.2.5.tar.bz2.sig

This checks whether the signature file matches the source file. You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and made by that signing key. Make sure that you have the right key, either by checking the fingerprint of that key with other sources or by checking that the key has been signed by a trustworthy other key. Note, that you can retrieve the signing key using "finger wk 'at' g10code.com" or "dd9jn 'at' gnu.org" or using the keyservers. I recently prolonged the expiration date; thus you might need a fresh copy of that key.

Never use a GnuPG version you just downloaded to check the integrity of the source - use an existing GnuPG installation!

• If you are not able to use an old version of GnuPG, you have to verify the MD5 checksum. Assuming you downloaded the file gnupg-1.2.5.tar.bz2, you would run the md5sum command like this:

md5sum gnupg-1.2.5.tar.bz2

and check that the output matches the first line from the following list:

9109ff94f7a502acd915a6e61d28d98a gnupg-1.2.5.tar.gz
e4991e46fde52b216410ef0f485b4217 gnupg-1.2.5.tar.bz2
d591cb58a7bc81d4e5572260ba2cd595 gnupg-1.2.4-1.2.5.diff.gz
3d93d73942117c4c0182cb15e01de70f gnupg-w32cli-1.2.5.zip

Upgrade Information

If you are upgrading from a version prior to 1.0.7, you should run the script tools/convert-from-106 once. Please note also that due to a bug in versions prior to 1.0.6 it may not be possible to downgrade to such versions unless you apply the patch http://www.gnupg.org/developer/gpg-woody-fix.txt .

If you have any problems, please see the FAQ and the mailing list archive at http://lists.gnupg.org. Please direct questions to the gnupg-users@gnupg.org mailing list.

What's New

Here is a list of major user visible changes since 1.2.4:

• New --ask-cert-level/--no-ask-cert-level option to turn on and off the prompt for signature level when signing a key. Defaults to on.
• New --min-cert-level option to disregard key signatures that are under a specified level. Defaults to 1 (i.e. don't disregard anything).
• New --max-output option to limit the amount of plaintext output generated by GnuPG. This option can be used by programs which call GnuPG to process messages that may result in plaintext larger than the calling program is prepared to handle. This is sometimes called a "Decompression Bomb".
• New --list-config command for frontends and other programs that call GnuPG. See doc/DETAILS for the specifics of this.
• New --gpgconf-list command for internal use by the gpgconf utility from gnupg 1.9.x.
• Some performance improvements with large keyrings. See --enable-key-cache=3DSIZE in the README file for details.
• Some portability fixes for the OpenBSD/i386, HPPA, and AIX platforms.
• Simplified Chinese translation.

Internationalization

GnuPG comes with support for 28 languages:

Languages marked with [*] were not updated for this release and you may notice untranslated messages. Many thanks to the translators for their ongoing support of GnuPG.

Future Directions

GnuPG 1.2.x is the current stable branch and won't undergo any serious changes. We will just fix bugs and add compatibility fixes as required.

GnuPG 1.3.x is the version were we do most new stuff and it will lead to the next stable version 1.4 not too far away.

GnuPG 1.9.x is next generation GnuPG. This version merged the code Fromthe Aegypten project and thus it includes the gpg-agent, a smartcard daemon and gpg's S/MIME cousin gpgsm. The design is different to the previous versions and we may not support all ancient systems - thus POSIX compatibility will be an absolute requirement for supported platforms. 1.9 is based on an somewhat older 1.3 code and will peacefully coexist with other GnuPG versions.

Happy Hacking,

The GnuPG Team (David, Stefan, Timo and Werner)

Werner Koch