Endpoint Encryption

Hi,

We would just like to inquire what is the minimum and maximum passphrase length for PGP Command line. Currently we have the PGP Command Line 10.3. This is only for our documentation

Please advise.

Thank you.

You can set an empty passphrase (no passphrase).  As far as the maximum, you are theoretically limited only by external factors, such as the size allowed by a sha-1 hash, etc.  Practically, I have created up to an 8020 character passphrase, which seems to be about the limit that the Command Prompt on a Windows box will hold.  I could modify that only slightly by using a shorter username, etc., so it would seem that whatever command interface you are using is most likely going to impose your limit.

I imagine I would find it difficult to perform all necessary operations if my key passphrase is going to occupy the majority of available space, but there are other ways to call out a passphrase.  I would consider the option of around 8000 characters a bit heavy-handed, but it is doable.

Thanks Mike, so basically the max limit will depend on Windows prompt capacity. Is there any special characters that we cannot used? (i.e. asterisk, space...etc)

Please advise, thank you.

The only thing that you shouldn't be able to use for the passphrase are the delimiters for the passphrase itself (quotes), which are required if you have spaces.  For example:
abc123_)bob     <---this is a valid passphrase
"abc123 $%^ 987zyx"    <---this is a valid passphrase, quotes required due to the space in the passphrase

If you want to use double quotes, you must use an escape character, which is \ on Linux, or " on Windows.  So on Windows it would look like:
"This is my ""special"" password"