A keyserver is a public dababase containing public keys. It is used to publicize keys. You can search for a specified key stored inside of a keyserver (for User ID, Key ID, Key Type, Creation Date, Expiration Date, Revoked Keys, Keys of a size that you specify). You can download a key or upload it. What if you want to delete your old public key stored inside of a keyserver? Well you can just invalidate your key by generating a "key revocation certificate" (KRC) and submit the KRC to the keyserver. A KRC is a special 'signature' that indicates that your public key has been compromised. That key won't be usable anymore! However you need your secret passphrase in order to generate a KRC...so, what if you lose your secret passphrase? Someone suggests to generate a KRC *at key generation time* and store it on a floppy disk. So, even if you lose the secret key, you still have a KRC you can submit.Web based keyservers FTP Keyservers |