Pretty Good Privacy

Pretty Good Privacy
Original author(s)
  • Phil Zimmermann
  • PGP Inc.
  • Network Associates
  • PGP Corp.[1]
Developer(s)Broadcom Inc.
Initial release1991 (1991)
Stable release
11.4.0 Maintenance Pack 2 / May 23, 2023 (2023-05-23)[2]
Written inC
Operating systemmacOS, Windows[3]
Standard(s)
  • OpenPGP: RFC 4880, 5581, 6637, 9580
  • PGP/MIME: RFC 2015, 3156
TypeEncryption software
LicenseCommercial proprietary software
Websitewww.broadcom.com/products/advanced-threat-protection/encryption 

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications. Phil Zimmermann developed PGP in 1991.[4]

PGP and similar software follow the OpenPGP standard (RFC 4880), an open standard for encrypting and decrypting data. Modern versions of PGP are interoperable with GnuPG and other OpenPGP-compliant systems.[5]

The OpenPGP standard has received criticism for its long-lived keys and the difficulty in learning it,[6] as well as the Efail security vulnerability that previously arose when select e-mail programs used OpenPGP with S/MIME.[7][8] The new OpenPGP standard (RFC 9580) has also been criticised by the maintainer of GnuPG Werner Koch, who in response created his own specification LibrePGP.[9] This response was dividing, with some embracing his alternative specification,[10] and others considering it to be insecure.[11]

  1. ^ "Where to Get PGP". philzimmermann.com. Phil Zimmermann & Associates LLC. February 28, 2006. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  2. ^ "Symantec Endpoint Encryption 11.4.0 Maintenance Pack 2 Release Notes". techdocs.broadcom.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
  3. ^ "System requirements for Symantec Endpoint Encryption Client". techdocs.broadcom.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2024. Retrieved February 16, 2024.
  4. ^ Zimmermann, Philip R. (1999). "Why I Wrote PGP". Essays on PGP. Phil Zimmermann & Associates LLC. Archived from the original on June 24, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  5. ^ "Gnu Privacy Guard". GnuPG.org. Archived from the original on April 29, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  6. ^ Latacora (July 16, 2019). "The PGP Problem". Retrieved November 22, 2024.
  7. ^ "Efail: Breaking S/MIME and OpenPGP Email Encryption using Exfiltration Channels" (PDF).
  8. ^ Yen, Andy (May 15, 2018). "No, PGP is not broken, not even with the Efail vulnerabilities". Proton. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference LibrePGP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Tse, Ronald; Olshevsky, Nickolay (July 22, 2024). "RNP proudly supports LibrePGP". RNP. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
  11. ^ Gallagher, Andrew (September 11, 2024). "A Summary of Known Security Issues in LibrePGP". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
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