PGP Packet Dump & Analysis

Decode and analyze OpenPGP packet structure for keys, signatures, and messages

Supports public keys, private keys, encrypted messages, and signatures

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PGP Packet Dump Explained

What is PGP Packet Dump?

PGP packet dump is a process of decoding and analyzing the internal structure of OpenPGP keys and messages. Every PGP key, message, or signature is composed of multiple packets that contain specific information according to the OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880).

Packet Types Supported

  • Signature Packets: Contains digital signature data including signature type, algorithm, hash, and creation time
  • Public Key Packets: Contains public key algorithm, key material, creation time, and expiration
  • Secret Key Packets: Contains private key material (encrypted or unencrypted)
  • User ID Packets: Contains identity information (name, email) associated with the key
  • User Attribute Packets: Contains additional attributes like photos
  • Trust Packets: Contains trust/validity information for keys

What Information Can You Extract?

  • Key ID: Unique identifier for the PGP key (last 8 bytes of fingerprint)
  • Fingerprint: Complete cryptographic hash of the key
  • Algorithm: Encryption algorithm used (RSA, DSA, ECDSA, EdDSA, etc.)
  • Key Size: Bit length of the key (2048, 4096, etc.)
  • Creation Date: When the key was generated
  • Expiration Date: When the key expires (if set)
  • User IDs: All identities associated with the key
Use Cases: PGP packet dump is useful for debugging key issues, verifying key properties, extracting key IDs for configuration, understanding key structure, and troubleshooting signature/encryption problems.

Author Credentials & Expertise

Created by Anish Nath - Security Engineer specializing in cryptography and PKI systems.

  • Experience: 15+ years in cybersecurity, cryptographic implementations, and OpenPGP/GPG systems
  • Expertise: Deep understanding of RFC 4880 (OpenPGP), packet structure, key management
  • Standards Knowledge: OpenPGP protocol, PGP message format, ASCII armor encoding
  • Contact: @anish2good on X (Twitter)
Implementation Note: This tool uses Bouncy Castle cryptographic library for parsing OpenPGP packets according to RFC 4880 specification. All processing happens server-side with no data retention.

OpenPGP Packet Format (RFC 4880)

Understanding OpenPGP Packets

OpenPGP messages, keys, and signatures are sequences of packets. Each packet has a specific format:

Packet Structure
  1. Packet Tag: Identifies the packet type (public key, signature, user ID, etc.)
  2. Packet Length: Size of the packet body
  3. Packet Body: The actual packet data
Common Packet Tags
  • Tag 2: Signature Packet
  • Tag 6: Public-Key Packet
  • Tag 5: Secret-Key Packet
  • Tag 13: User ID Packet
  • Tag 14: Public-Subkey Packet
  • Tag 17: User Attribute Packet

ASCII Armor Format

PGP data is often encoded in ASCII armor format for easy transmission via email and text channels. ASCII armor:

  • Encodes binary data in Base64
  • Adds BEGIN and END markers (e.g., -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----)
  • Includes CRC24 checksum for data integrity
  • May include headers like Version, Comment, etc.

Authoritative Sources

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