gpgpaper

Back up your gpg private keys to printable QR codes, and restore them from scanned PNG images.

Why?

• Why you still need paper hard copy backups?

What does it do?

The script will create a directory with your gpg <Key_ID> name and put all the files there. <Key_ID> - gpg key identity: may be an email or key fingerprint like: 5F8C67D3

For recovering of the key the gpgpaper.sh script searches for a directory named <Key_ID>, containig PNG files with QR-Codes. It's just that simple.

IMPORTANT:

1 - Order of PNG files matters! PNGs must be numbered properly, so the first part of key goes first and so on.

2 - When recovering secret keys from scanned PNG files with QR-codes, the public portion of a key must be in gpg keychain.

Dependencies

Depends on:

• gpg/gpg2
• paperkey
• qrencode
• zbar
• coreutils (GNU version)
• pdflatex (mactex on MacOS or latex on Linux)

MacOS: install dependencies with Homebrew:

brew install \
	gpg-suite \
	mactex-no-gui \
	coreutils \
	qrencode \
	zbar \
	paperkey

Coreutils will be installed with g - prefix (stands for GNU). E.g.: gsplit, ghead etc...

Usage

BACK UP SECRET GPG KEYS TO QR CODES

Option 1: Generate a tarball with 4 PNG files containing QR-Codes of specified. You can then store it on digital storages

./gpgpaper.sh -k user@email.com

Option 2: Generate a printable PDF file to store your keys on paper in safe onffine storage.

./gpgpaper.sh -p 5F8C67D3

RECOVER SECRET KEYS

If you stored keys on paper, then do the following:

• scan the QR-codes,
• save each QR-code in separate PNG file and name them accordingly: 1.png, 2.png, 2.png, 4.png (Remember: Order matters!)
• put all PNGs to folder named <Key_ID>.qr
• Clone this repo and put the folder to the repo next to script.
• run: ./gpgpaper.sh -r <Key_ID>

The gpg secret key file named <Key_ID>.asc will be generated in the <Key_ID> directory.

Now you can import it using:

gpg --import ./<Key_ID>/<Key_ID>.asc

Done!

License

BSD

Author Information

Andrew Shagayev | e-mail