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I am trying to import Github's webflow signing key on a fresh install of Raspbian (Debian) Buster.

 $ gpg2 --recv-keys 5DE3E0509C47EA3CF04A42D34AEE18F83AFDEB23
gpg: key 4AEE18F83AFDEB23: new key but contains no user ID - skipped
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:           w/o user IDs: 1

I don't understand the error message and am having a hard time finding other users encountering the same error. gpg version:

$ gpg --version
gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.12
libgcrypt 1.8.4
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Home: /home/pi/.gnupg
Supported algorithms:
Pubkey: RSA, ELG, DSA, ECDH, ECDSA, EDDSA
Cipher: IDEA, 3DES, CAST5, BLOWFISH, AES, AES192, AES256, TWOFISH,
        CAMELLIA128, CAMELLIA192, CAMELLIA256
Hash: SHA1, RIPEMD160, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, SHA224
Compression: Uncompressed, ZIP, ZLIB, BZIP2

I'm certain this key has a User ID! (Verified on OSX)

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1
  • When using %{gpgverify} (expands to /usr/lib/rpm/redhat/gpgverify, a convenience wrapper around gpgv2) during RPM packaging on Fedora/CentOS/RHEL, this leads to the quite misleading error message gpgv: Can't check signature: Bad public key, which however originates from exactly the same issue (stripped user ID by keyserver).
    – rsc
    Commented Sep 15, 2022 at 21:09

2 Answers 2

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114

You are probably using the keys.openpgp.org keyserver, which has an owner approval system – it will strip all user IDs unless the owner of the corresponding email address has allowed them to be published.

Try to download the key from elsewhere, such as:

  • --keyserver hkps://keyserver.ubuntu.com
  • --keyserver hkps://pgp.surf.nl (ex-SKS pool)
  • --keyserver hkp://pgp.rediris.es (ex-SKS pool)

(Future GnuPG versions will accept keys without an UID, although it won't be terribly useful except for direct fingerprint-based comparison.)

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  • 25
    Note that --keyserver ... has to be in front of the --recv-keys ... flag, else gpg will out with a not helpful error message.
    – thakis
    Commented Jun 9, 2020 at 0:13
  • 2
    @user1686: re "Future GnuPG versions will accept keys without a UID", is this feature request what you were referring to? Unfortunately it's since been closed as wontfix by a GnuPG maintainer.
    – chrstphrchvz
    Commented Aug 27, 2020 at 9:58
  • 2
    BTW for Debian, keyserver is keyring.debian.org
    – Matija Nalis
    Commented Dec 14, 2020 at 17:03
  • That's only for Debian Developer keys and won't have most other keys you need. (Meanwhile, the keyserver run by Ubuntu is public.)
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Jun 22, 2021 at 7:20
  • 1
    @LyrePyre: What you can do, though, is realize that the situation has changed since the OPGP server's introduction (well, before that, even) and not all keyservers are running the SKS software anymore – e.g. the Ubuntu keyserver is using Hockeypuck, which also solves several major of the security problems SKS had (such as accepting forged or malformed packets).
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Jun 6 at 4:45
0

I faced the same problem with a GPG public key I have saved on keys.openpgp.org.

gpg --import DBE0B8427CD7E8606C8CB8523434370EA811321.asc
gpg: key F7391C70EA8XX21: no user ID
gpg: Total number processed: 1

Luckily I have saved the public key to my google drive. I download the hey from google drive and it worked

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  • 1
    How does this help the OP?
    – Ashesh
    Commented Dec 4, 2023 at 9:52
  • It helps by providing feedback with the cause of error. It's not an error on your system, but it's the server where you uploaded the public hey, hence the place where you want to import it on a new system
    – Radu Gabriel
    Commented Dec 11, 2023 at 17:06
  • this answer helped me as this is exactly the command I used and message I received
    – Nikolay Zakirov
    Commented Feb 28 at 2:42

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