Keys too short?

Hi there,

I’ve created keys in Kleopatra to test. One thing though, my public keys seem quite short.

I only say this because I have seen a few people posting their public keys on their websites etc, and they seem much longer.

For example, one person’s I’ve noticed is Christopher Soghoian’s which is posted on his site here: http://www.dubfire.net/csoghoian-public-key-with-subkeys-oct-3-2013.asc

It’s MASSIVE.

Here’s another long one: http://www.irdial.com/pgp.htm

And here is the one I’ve produced in Kleopatra:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.21 (MingW32)
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=0vki
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

I tried using the 4096-bit setting, but even then the public key is tiny compared to the ones I’ve linked to.

The private keys being created at the same time are also not that big. Here’s the private key to go along with the public key above:

(I created this key pair just for demonstration in this forum post by the way, I will obviously never use it for communications, and will delete it following this discussion).

-----BEGIN PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.21 (MingW32)
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=WXnl
-----END PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----

Am I missing something or are these keys shorter than they need to be?

Thanks for any advice.

Your key lengths look about right.

The longer keys you are seeing probably have additional information added to them. It’s most likely signatures from others. Every time someone signs your key it adds a little to the length.

Another reason could be additional user IDs. Adding something like a photo to your key can greatly increase the length.

Cheers,
Sean C.