encryption/decryption with multiple keys

encryption gnupg encryption-asymmetric
Glen Solsberry picture Glen Solsberry · Feb 28, 2009 · Viewed 85.3k times · Source

Is it possible to encrypt data, such that it can be decrypted with several different keys?

Example:

I've encrypted data with key1, but I want to be able to decrypt with keys 2, 3, and 4.

Is this possible?

Answer

David Segonds picture David Segonds · Feb 28, 2009

GnuPG does multi-key encryption in standard.

The following command will encrypt doc.txt using the public key for Alice and the public key for Bob. Alice can decrypt using her private key. Bob can also decrypt using his private key.

gpg --encrypt --recipient [email protected] \
    --recipient [email protected] doc.txt

This feature is detailed in the user guide section entitled "Encrypting and decrypting documents"

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