View source for Use GPG mail signing and encryption with openSuse 10.3

Just started playing around with mail signing and encryption.
Main problem was, to make gpg-agent work in a vnc session.

===How I did it===
# create key pair with kgpg
#* type pgp+elGamal, 1024 or 2048bit
#* Give a good passphrase for the private key
#* use an expiry date (1-5 years)
#* generate a revocation cert
# make key the standard key
# set to ultimate trust (you trust yourself, do you?)
# upload public key to a keyserver

===What you get===
* kmail can use the private key for signing
* you must sign public keys of recipients and mark them trusted to use them for encryption

===Hints and probable problems===
* gpg-agent is started by sys.xinitrc (copy to ~/.vnc/xstartup for vnc sessions)
* usage of gpg-agent by kgpg was already enabled (options menu or ~/.gpg/options)
* With gpg-agent you have to enter your private key passphrase less often
* To use the private key elsewhere, just export the private key to a file (the key is still protected by the passphrase). Some even upload it to the key server.

===Concerns===
* protect the private key! Anyone with the key and the passphrase can read your recieved encrypted mails and sign mails to make them look like coming from you.
* revocation cert is used (e.g. if you loose your private key) to make the public key invalid.
** To make a revocation cert, you need the private key, so do it now :-)
** Save it somewhere, where you cant loose it and noone can use it to invalidate your key.
* check the fingerprint of foreign keys you sign (to use them for encryption) via trustworthy channels.