/[winpt]/trunk/doc/winpt.texi

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-revision 222 by twoaday,
Thu Jun  1 08:30:46 2006 UTC
+revision 232 by twoaday,
Tue Jun 20 09:29:59 2006 UTC
 Line 8 
 This file is free under the terms of the
  Copyright (C) 2006 Timo Schulz
- Version 0.0.0
+ Version 0.2.0
  @settitle WinPT - The Windows Privacy Tray; a free GPG front-end for Windows
 Line 24 
 You need at least Windows 98/2K/XP, but
  recommend. The program also works on NT/95/ME but there is no support
  for these OS versions any longer.
+ @section A short Introduction
+ WinPT is a graphical GnuPG front-end which resides in the task bar.
+ It is divided into several, so-called, managers. There is a manager
+ for the keyring, for files and for smart cards. The aim of the program
+ is to secure email communication and to perform file encryption.
+ @subsection What is GnuPG
+ GnuPG is a tool for secure communication and data storage.
+ It can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures.
+ It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant
+ with the proposed Internet standard as described in RFC2440.
+ @subsection The Web of Trust
+ For a detailled description of these and other GnuPG topics, I
+ recommend the available literature at http://www.gnupg.org. But
+ at least a general overview should be given here.
+ The certification scheme of OpenPGP does not base on a hirachical
+ approach. Instead it uses a combination of ownertrust and direct
+ key certification. Here is an example with Alice, Bob, Carol and Dave.
+ Alice knows Bob and checked the fingerprint of Bob's key when he
+ met him personally. Thus she knows that the key really belongs to
+ its owner and he trusts Bob to certify other keys. Then she issued
+ a signature on Bob's key. Bob knows Carol and also checked her identity.
+ Then he signed her key. Alice does not know Carol, but he knows Bob
+ and Bob trusts Carol. And because Alice trusts Bob, at a level she
+ decided before, he also trusts Carol. It's a transitiv relation.
+ Dave is isolated and does not know anybody from the mentioned persons,
+ thus he is not in the WoT.
+ Another very important point is, that the signer can decide,
+ after the certification, how much he trusts the key owner to
+ certify other keys.
+ It is very important to check the identify of a key owner. Mostly
+ this is done by comparing the fingerprint, which were submitted
+ by phone or written down at a personal meeting, with the fingerprint
+ of the key in the keyring. Please bear in mind that anybody can create
+ a key with an email address and a specific name. Thus it is not
+ recommend to sign keys without doing this check before!
+ The fingerprint of the key is hexadecial (160-bit) sequence divided
+ into 10 groups of 4 hex digits. You can get the fingerprint of a key
+ by opening the key property dialog. There you can mark the fingerprint
+ and copy it to the clipboard. The fingerprint of a key can be compared
+ to human fingerprints, it is unique for each key.
+ Example: 1D75 8108 5BC9 D9FB E78B  2078 ED46 81C9 BF3D F9B4
+ It is a good idea to publish your fingerprint wherever possible.
+ For example via a business card or your website.
  @section Installation of the Program
-Line 32 
 can download it from http://wald.intevat
+Line 84 
 can download it from http://wald.intevat
  Download the zip file with the binaries inside and unpack them in
  a folder. All files need to be in the same folder, so if you change
  the folder don't forget to move all files.
+ You should also download and verify the signature of the packet to
+ make sure that the release is really authentic.
  To activate the program you just need to start WinPT.exe. You should
  now see a little (golden key) icon in the taskbar which indicates that
-Line 45 
 is very easy to use with an average size
+Line 99 
 is very easy to use with an average size
  speaking users, I recommend the light version because it does not
  contain the 2 German PDF manuals.
+ @subsection Getting the Source of the Program
+ As free software, according to the GNU General Public License,
+ WinPT also offers the source code for the program. It can be used
+ for reviews, to compile your own binary and/or to modify and/or
+ redistribute it or just to learn how it works. The source is available
+ at the same place you downloaded the binary. If not, you should
+ contact the author of the site.
+ The entire program can be build with free software; the default
+ environment is a cross-compiler hosted on a Linux box. All you
+ need is the mingw32 packages, a working autoconf environment
+ and the libs WinPT depends on (currently gpgme and libgpg-error).
+ It is also possible to build the binary with cygwin/mingw32 on
+ Windows but this environment is not actively supported and propably
+ needs adjustment of the source.
  @subsection Configure the Program
  After the installation not much of the default settings need to
  be changed. If you prefer a special keyserver, it is propably a good
-Line 68 
 to the hotkeys.
+Line 137 
 to the hotkeys.
  To enable keyring backups, the user can either decide to use the
  GPG home directory as the backup folder or any other folder. In
- the latter case, a folder needs to be chosen. If the backup should
+ the latter case, a folder needs to be chosen.
- also include the secret keyring, please check the corresponding box.
  @section The First Start
  This section is only important for people who never installed
  and/or used WinPT before.
-Line 95 
 why it is also important to store the ba
+Line 164 
 why it is also important to store the ba
  secret keyring, at a @strong{safe} place.
  @section Keyserver Access
  An easy way to retrieve keys is the keyserver. You can think of
  it like a huge database with a lot of keys as its content. It is
  possible to search keys by a pattern, a keyid or even a fingerprint.
-Line 110 
 The main keyserver dialog allows to fetc
+Line 180 
 The main keyserver dialog allows to fetc
  or to search for a given pattern.
  @subsection Retrieve a key by Key ID
+ The best way to fetch a key from the server is by the key ID.
+ Just enter the key ID, it is always a good idea to prefix it
+ with 0x and click the "Receive" button.
+ An example:
+ pattern: 0xBF3DF9B4
+ [Receive]
  @subsection Retrieve a key by its email address
+ If you only know the email address from your partner, you can
+ enter it instead of the key ID. It is unlikely but possible
+ that there are more keys with the same address. In this situation,
+ WinPT will warn you that multiple keys were imported. The difference
+ to the search function is, that the keys were dirctly fetched and
+ not displayed as a key result list.
+ An example:
+ pattern: name_of_friend@@gmx.net
+ [Receive]
  @subsection Search for a key by pattern
  If you want to communicate with a new mail partner and you are
-Line 120 
 email address. This address is considere
+Line 214 
 email address. This address is considere
  An example:
- pattern: twoaday@@freakmail.de
+ pattern: winpt@@windows-privacy-tray.com
  [Search]
-Line 131 
 should be clicked. Then the key will be
+Line 225 
 should be clicked. Then the key will be
  to your keyring. Now you can encrypt data with this key, for
  example an email.
- @section Adding new elements to your key
+ @subsection Sending a Key to the Keyserver
+ After you generated a new key pair, it is a good idea to send your
+ key to the keyserver to make it available for other users. If you
+ issue a signature, the key ID is part of the signature and people can
+ automatically retrieve your key when they try to verify the signature.
+ Actually, the action is performed in the Key Manager and not in the
+ keyserver dialog. Just open the Key Manager, select the key you want
+ to send right-click on it and chose "Send to Keyserver" in the popup
+ menu. Then a message box with the result is shown.
+ @subsection Add, Delete or Edit a Keyserver Entry
+ The keyserver dialog allow to change the existing keyserver entries,
+ to delete them or to add new entries. Just right click on a selected
+ item and a popup menu will be shown with ("Edit", "Remove" and "New").
+ @section Using the Clipboard
+ A major aim from the first day was, that the program does not
+ depend on a special mailer client. For this reason it uses the
+ clipboard to encrypt and/or sign data.
+ For the examples, let's assume that you want to write a new
+ mail or that you received a mail protected by GnuPG.
+ @subsection Encrypt Data in the Clipboard
+ Just copy the text from the mailer window into the clipboard.
+ This is usually done by CTRL+C, make sure you really selected
+ all portions of the text. Then right-click on the tray icon
+ and select Clipboard->Encryption. Now a dialog is shown to
+ select the recipients. This means you need to select all
+ keys which should be able to decrypt the mail. Confirm with "OK".
+ GnuPG now encrypts the data with the selected recipients. At the
+ end a message box with the result is shown. Now the clipboard should
+ contain the encrypted data. Just paste it into the mailer window.
+ The output should contain a header and a footer
+ "BEGIN PGP MESSAGE" and "END PGP MESSAGE.
+ @subsection Decrypt/Verify Data from the Clipboard
+ The most common case is propably that you got a signed email and
+ now you want to verify it. For this procedure, you have to copy
+ the entire signature in the clipboard. The easiest way is to
+ use CTRL+A and CTRL+C, then all available text will be copied.
+ WinPT (GnuPG) is smart enough to figure out the signature related
+ data. Now go to the taskbar, display the popup menu and select
+ Clipboard->Decrypt/Verify. Now a new dialog, the verify dialog,
+ should be available on screen with all information about the
+ signature. For example who is the signer, when was it signed
+ how much do you try this key and what was signed and most
+ important, the status of it (is the signature good or BAD).
+ A special case is when you don't have the public key to verify
+ the signature, if this happens WinPT offers to download the key
+ from the default keyserver. If the key was not found, the procedure
+ is aborted because without the key the sig cannot bed checked.
+ @subsection Sign the Clipboard
+ We assume that text that shall be signed is already in the
+ clipboard. If not, select the text you want to sign and copy
+ with via CTRL+C in the clipboard. Now go to the taskbar and
+ open the peopup menu, Clipboard->Sign. If you just have one
+ secret key, the passphrase dialog will be automatically shown.
+ All you need is to enter your passphrase and confirm. In case
+ of more available secret keys, a list with all keys is shown
+ and you can select which key shall be used for signing.
+ The output is always a cleartext signature which is in text
+ format. Do not try to sign binary clipboard data, the result
+ would be unpredictable and not readable by human beings.
+ @section The Current Window Support
+ Compared to the clipboard mode, the CWS mode has some advantages.
+ Let us assume that you want to extract text from an editor window.
+ With the CWS mode, the program automatically tries to focus the
+ window to select the text and to copy it to the clipboard and
+ execute the selected command (Sign, Encrypt, Decrypt).
+ No manual user interaction is needed. Except this different behaviour,
+ it is very likewise to the clipboard mode and thus we do not describe
+ each command again.
+ @section The Key Manager
+ This part of the program is propably most important for many users.
+ It contains function to manage your keyring and to perform actions
+ which are required and/or useful in the OpenPGP environment.
+ @subsection Tips
+ @itemize @bullet
+ @item
+ If you want to import quickly a key from a into the keyring, just
+ drag and drop the file into the Key Manager window. Then the import
+ procedure will be automatically started.
+ @item
+ Key which were fetched from keyservers often contain a lot of,
+ maybe obsolete, self signatures, if you want to get rid of them
+ you can use the Key Edit->Clean feature. Just start the edit
+ dialog and select the clean command. That's it.
+ @item
+ The keyserver dialog does not allow to import a key directly
+ via an URL, as an alternative you may use the "Import HTTP..."
+ feature in the Key Manager. With it you can directly fetch keys
+ from the web (Example: http://www.users.my-isp.de/~joe/gpg-keys.asc).
+ @item
+ To customize the parameters of the generated key, you can use
+ the expert key generation. It allows you to set the public key
+ algorithm and/or the size of the key directly.
+ @item
+ Most of the list view based dialogs allow to use the right
+ mouse button, to show popup menus with available commands.
+ @end itemize
+ @subsection Create a Revocation Certificate
+ It is very important to do this step early as possible. With this
+ certificate, you can revoke your entire key. The reason for this
+ can be for example, that your key is no longer used or even compromised.
+ After you generated the revoc cert, you should move it to a secure place
+ because anybody who gets access to it, can render your key unuseable.
+ Just right-click on your key and select "Revoke Cert". If you do this
+ step directly after key generation, there is no need to change the
+ default values. Just select a file name and enter the passphrase.
+ The program issues a warning which should be read carefully.
- @subsection Adding a new secondary key
+ @subsection Adding a new Secondary Key
  For most users the existing keys in the key pair are enough
  and no extra key is needed. But there are some exceptions.
-Line 157 
 of taste. RSA and ElGamal are both capab
+Line 377 
 of taste. RSA and ElGamal are both capab
  users it's a good idea to let the program chose the key size (in bits).
  The default settings should be secure enough for most purposes.
- @subsection Adding a new user ID
+ @subsection Adding a new User ID
  If you got a new email account, it's propably a good idea to
  add these new account to your key also. For example:
-Line 173 
 comment: (optional)
+Line 393 
 comment: (optional)
  Now email programs are able to associate this address with your
  key when somebody wants to send you a protected mail to this account.
- @subsection Adding a photographic ID
+ @subsection Adding a new Photographic ID
  With this function you can add a photo to your public. It will be
  displayed in the key property dialog.
-Line 182 
 enter your passphrase and confirm with O
+Line 402 
 enter your passphrase and confirm with O
  in the dialog carefully to make sure the photo has a proper size
  (file, height and weight).
- @subsection Adding a new designated revoker
+ @subsection Adding a new Designated Revoker
  If you want to allow another key to revoke your own key, this
  might be useful if you lost your secret or a simliar situation,
  you can use this function to add a designated revoker to your key.
-Line 193 
 and that this person really has the powe
+Line 413 
 and that this person really has the powe
  unuseable. You really should trust the selected key, in case it is
  not a key owned by yourself.
+ @subsection Export a Public Key
+ There are several reason why to export a public key and there
+ are also several ways to do it. If you want to send the key
+ directly to a mail recipient, you can select the key, right-click,
+ and select "Send Key to Mail Recipient". As an alternative, you
+ can also export it to the clipboard or to a file. To export a
+ key to the clipboard, you can select "Copy key to Clipboard"
+ in the popup menu of the selected key. To export it to a file,
+ you need to select the menu "Key" and then "Export...". The
+ program will automatically suggest a name for the output.
+ @subsection Import a Public Key
+ Similar to the key import, the import of a key can be done in
+ several ways. First, let's assume you got a mail with an OpenPGP
+ key included as inline text. Then you can use the current window
+ feature and "Decrypt/Verify" to import the key. Alternative you
+ also may use the clipboard. To achieve this, you first need to
+ select the entire key (CTRL+A) and then copy it to the clipboard
+ (CTRL+C), then use the Key Manager (Edit->Paste) to import it.
+ If the key is stored as an attachment, or you want to import
+ a key from a file in general, just drag the file and drop it
+ into the Key Manager window or use "Key" -> "Import...".
+ @subsection Sign a Public Key
+ If you verified that a key really belongs to its owner, you
+ should sign the key to integrate it into your Web of Trust
+ and also to mark the key as valid in your keyring. Do not sign
+ a key you just got via email with the request to sign it. Anybody
+ can create a key with your (or better ANY) name, these information
+ are no hint to whom the key really belongs. You can check a key
+ by meeting or calling the key owner and verify the key fingerprint
+ of the key with the one published by the key owner. Additional checks
+ should be to watch at his driver license or the identity card to make
+ sure that name of the key matches the name of the key owner. After
+ this procedure is done, you can open the Key Manager, select the
+ right key and either use the context menu "Sign Key" or use the
+ toolbar button.
+ The next dialog will summarize the key information and some
+ additional options. For example if the signature should be
+ local or exportable. Local means the signature will be stripped
+ if you export the key and no one else except you can use it to
+ calculate the validity. If you mark the signature exportable,
+ any other user can see and use it. Now you can select the key
+ you want to use to sign and enter the passphrase. Confirm with "OK"
+ and the key will be signed. Now the validity of the new key is
+ "Full". It is propably a good idea to set the ownertrust of the
+ key. For a detailled description, see the chapter "Key Ownertrust".
+ @subsection Key Ownertrust
+ First we should explain what the ownertrust of a key is. The ownertrust
+ is a measurement how much you trust somebody to certify and check keys
+ of other people. For example, if you know that Bob is really the owner
+ of the key, you should sign it. But he is also known to sign other keys
+ without checking the idenity of the other key owner. Values for the
+ ownertrust are 1) Don't Know 2) Don't Trust 3) Marginal 4) Full
+ and thus you should propably use an ownertrust value like "Marginal".
+ But this is a personal decision and stored in a separate file and
+ never exported with the public keys. For further information, please
+ take a look into the GNU Privacy Handbook.
+ Just a last work on Key Pairs, they are automatically marked as
+ "Ultimate" because the key belongs to you and you trust it implicit.
  @bye

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