Dear All,
A few months ago, I have created a key.
Recently I have formatted my pc and I have download a new version of Thunderbird, hence a new plugin of Enigmail.
Unfortunately, when I have created the ID, I did not download the key certificate which I am not able to generate again. Also, because I haven’t uploaded the key on the public server, I am not able to attach the ID to Enigmail.
There is any way that I can get the .asc certificate in order to use my key from my 40 digits alphanumeric key ID?
Thanks
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The Key ID is only the identifier of the key - it's not the certificate itself. If you loose your certificate, there is absolutely no way to recover it. The only option you have is to create a new certificate.
I strongly recommend that you create a backup copy of your secret key and store it on a USB stick or similar
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Thanks for your advice. Just to be clearer (IT is not my top skill!), you are telling me that, despite I have the 40 digits alphanumeric code (called key ID), I cannot use it because I do not have the long sequence of letters/number that are my public key?
I mean, I do have the key ID which is a sequence of 40 numbers but not the long public key which is contained into the certificate…but I guess it isn’t useful!
Last edit: Diego Sanchez 2018-02-12
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A key ID is not the passport itself but a technical identifier, like a tag to destinguish different keys. The key itself is much longer, and handled as file (if exported) or as entity (in your keyring), it's not a string. The key ID is displayed to identify that key, or be used as part of the file name (if key is exported, e.g. to backup).
Once you created your key, you should have exported/copied it to a second device (like a thumb drive) to be able to recover it in a situation like you face it now: harddrive crash, theft of device, etc. If you don't have such a copy (of your PRIVATE key), there is no way to recover/rebuild it.
To be clear: Your "key" in fact consists of two keys, a public and a private key. Even if you recover your public key (since you might have attached it to your messages), you still need the private key in order to decrypt existing messages. Without it, they are lost. Sorry.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Dear All,
A few months ago, I have created a key.
Recently I have formatted my pc and I have download a new version of Thunderbird, hence a new plugin of Enigmail.
Unfortunately, when I have created the ID, I did not download the key certificate which I am not able to generate again. Also, because I haven’t uploaded the key on the public server, I am not able to attach the ID to Enigmail.
There is any way that I can get the .asc certificate in order to use my key from my 40 digits alphanumeric key ID?
Thanks
The Key ID is only the identifier of the key - it's not the certificate itself. If you loose your certificate, there is absolutely no way to recover it. The only option you have is to create a new certificate.
I strongly recommend that you create a backup copy of your secret key and store it on a USB stick or similar
Thanks for your advice. Just to be clearer (IT is not my top skill!), you are telling me that, despite I have the 40 digits alphanumeric code (called key ID), I cannot use it because I do not have the long sequence of letters/number that are my public key?
I mean, I do have the key ID which is a sequence of 40 numbers but not the long public key which is contained into the certificate…but I guess it isn’t useful!
Last edit: Diego Sanchez 2018-02-12
A key ID is not the passport itself but a technical identifier, like a tag to destinguish different keys. The key itself is much longer, and handled as file (if exported) or as entity (in your keyring), it's not a string. The key ID is displayed to identify that key, or be used as part of the file name (if key is exported, e.g. to backup).
Once you created your key, you should have exported/copied it to a second device (like a thumb drive) to be able to recover it in a situation like you face it now: harddrive crash, theft of device, etc. If you don't have such a copy (of your PRIVATE key), there is no way to recover/rebuild it.
To be clear: Your "key" in fact consists of two keys, a public and a private key. Even if you recover your public key (since you might have attached it to your messages), you still need the private key in order to decrypt existing messages. Without it, they are lost. Sorry.
Olav,
Thanks for your clarification. I assume that for private key you are not referring yourself to the password, which I guess is another thing!
So, at this point, i guess my key is lost!
Last edit: Diego Sanchez 2018-02-14
No, I was not referring to the "password".
Your passphrase is used to unlock your secret key.
To do so, you first need the secret key.