PGP public key

PGP public key can be transferred either as a text within another message or inside an .asc file. It is then used by PGP software to encrypt some data or to confirm the signature signed by the associated private key.

The file is encoded in ASCII characters, but can be saved in any plain text format (for example UTF-8).

File contents
The beginning of the file will always be: -BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK- although the case of the letters maybe different.

The second line normally describes the software used to generate the key, and the third line is empty.

The key itself starts on line 4, and can go on for an arbitrary number of lines. It is encoded using all the letters of Latin alphabet (English language) in both cases [A-Za-z], characters + and /. Newlines maybe inserted at any point, normally after the 64th character on the line, but these characters are not themselves part of the key and are used for ease of viewing and transfer only.

The last line of the key will normally have fewer than 64 characters, and may end with = symbol.

After the key there is a short line, starting with = and followed by 4 characters.

The end of the file is shown by the line (with case being variant as well): -END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-

The last line may or may not end with the newline character.

Newline characters used may be different, depending on the software used to produce the key, but normally are \n (Char(13)).

Example
-BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK- Version: GnuPG v1.4.14 (GNU/Linux)

mQENBFMXKocBCAD05ZjZxEQOFQNpMFbG+NErbJv83VZXvhzOVWDSoO5gcIQKj0+1 UMmwUfnPqBbP5X50losqH1gfJ1bspn/8n0AWK9KIgQjMPGltfdpDdb2X8Wm2X36P Bz9HSi34mFTWLN+IjHhUpnpPQff8rbCa7TuNw3LXPjF6Kea/RcwtiSswYUI8St36 LGA9YTry4EY/XVs+vE1XCfl5RN0JsVtHkENX69pvxcxZH45GiqStB9PpYjce5EAl /rrg/uzhWtAzwnZDaBS0okS5ZVZAIjh2rQoP117TGY9Zr4qSoM4kaLlzli5Gxc9h 3c1LEJqoWIRzYXgNjTa7c230c9jXMURw9AqVABEBAAG0MFZsYWRpbWlyIE1vemhl bmtvdiA8VmxhZGltaXJNb3poZW5rb3ZAeWFob28uY29tPokBPgQTAQIAKAUCUxcq hwIbIwUJA8JnAAYLCQgHAwIGFQgCCQoLBBYCAwECHgECF4AACgkQ7sXLZa0eCOVR KwgA8khi9YVdFNdSXmx2mKCi3KMuRdPYNdAWySscGLOVvtZ3lPQXPQRniXmYVy5P ILWA4yGh6z6TkrQRgBt5z3U+D0tIPul6eFhKz5QSC8OYBDl0yvrHiK9IebP3jxO/ ZuaDyu+xqXSm68OOkofF3/3RfAdMOFaMFiYsG8jWfj2h5C7YxRWLLiOqJ6//0Epm ZOCVGm1IPsuQA8xvFDlW18Q+BFz25wkawDcjZ4sJhKMpZEQq8W1pcMDetBy6ewdH akMR98x/jAu0wpdtfZSNc1QOm7tZaDJzVBIc50R8ucc8+6ygeOeBSvDLUmX+cTBP +UEBS9cQ7zF7cY3qFLQjk16dH7kBDQRTFyqHAQgAvOIDvr07aqfNnskDDjyEady2 cXmrFx4hbvZNIz5bWOe5SQyUCwpGknVgfDo/JBEI45/ohM8A3xUkRTladdXBoY5a /we6cyAzIFJd9ST0S3U2Sd2Tt9vKtsIedNLQfPbJGnm95kUSfMTzZnta8AnR6eWZ VF52suMA5M4PJr0/f8n//A98+JCQJQjx4ebtFgEq2TDibiBNu07GJv2yAu2oZGgf qs9xbBqWgIEO5TQ/x0+lKw9WvdIRPFKnqR+4zNFbSapeaJ2cAQsc3zmEpPiu77a4 OB0x9hqjlsf23JHjcQMS9oQqVc9MhS8dkMxmd1oB8++t6WCV6F9hSgmFpHKpVQAR AQABiQElBBgBAgAPBQJTFyqHAhsMBQkDwmcAAAoJEO7Fy2WtHgjlJdwIAIqIaj6y Tczt83tBCAJ1RNIiWN1wiRH7u8FYepWunrihZIMl4QxxrL7dQAiaJ050h9oqapyP abkFymLUO08B80ni4LpOVYiu4Wdqna2isR41yaHOSCgYAuy7xOhlweTAe+Qm3ETk ORlG768zqy9TJ7EJz67BxRt1meekwDz1vx0zzNLRabAylIABTVrzKeBEBwUB3+co PtwdsdX2DqpPYpfcgRIZVUD/gINRVb4Pm132VDE8raryya9hL42M+lcSLycJZdvr SGEsGLmT9f9NEYfeKrnJNazWs9qYCTC+lMtRemKCzOzsdElqPI66QoHFMHM3dTDj qY7z0VcnX0knDxI= =EWIh -END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-

And the same file in hex 2D 2D 2D 2D 2D 42 45 47 49 4E 20 50 47 50 20 50 55 42 4C 49 43 20 4B 45 59 20 42 4C 4F 43 4B 2D 2D 2D 2D 2D 0A 56 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 3A 20 47 6E 75 50 47 20 76 31 2E 34 2E 31 34 20 28 47 4E 55 2F 4C 69 6E 75 78 29 0A 0A 6D 51 45 4E 42 46 4D 58 4B 6F 63 42 43 41 44 30 35 5A 6A 5A 78 45 51 4F 46 51 4E 70 4D 46 62 47 2B 4E 45 72 62 4A 76 38 33 56 5A 58 76 68 7A 4F 56 57 44 53 6F 4F 35 67 63 49 51 4B 6A 30 2B 31 0A 55 4D 6D 77 55 66 6E 50 71 42 62 50 35 58 35 30 6C 6F 73 71 48 31 67 66 4A 31 62 73 70 6E 2F 38 6E 30 41 57 4B 39 4B 49 67 51 6A 4D 50 47 6C 74 66 64 70 44 64 62 32 58 38 57 6D 32 58 33 36 50 0A 42 7A 39 48 53 69 33 34 6D 46 54 57 4C 4E 2B 49 6A 48 68 55 70 6E 70 50 51 66 66 38 72 62 43 61 37 54 75 4E 77 33 4C 58 50 6A 46 36 4B 65 61 2F 52 63 77 74 69 53 73 77 59 55 49 38 53 74 33 36 0A 4C 47 41 39 59 54 72 79 34 45 59 2F 58 56 73 2B 76 45 31 58 43 66 6C 35 52 4E 30 4A 73 56 74 48 6B 45 4E 58 36 39 70 76 78 63 78 5A 48 34 35 47 69 71 53 74 42 39 50 70 59 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