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RFC 2440

OpenPGP Message Format

Pages: 65
Obsoleted by:  4880
Part 1 of 3 – Pages 1 to 16
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ToP   noToC   RFC2440 - Page 1
Network Working Group                                         J. Callas
Request for Comments: 2440                           Network Associates
Category: Standards Track                                L. Donnerhacke
                                     IN-Root-CA Individual Network e.V.
                                                              H. Finney
                                                     Network Associates
                                                              R. Thayer
                                                        EIS Corporation
                                                          November 1998


                         OpenPGP Message Format

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

IESG Note

   This document defines many tag values, yet it doesn't describe a
   mechanism for adding new tags (for new features).  Traditionally the
   Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) handles the allocation of
   new values for future expansion and RFCs usually define the procedure
   to be used by the IANA.  However, there are subtle (and not so
   subtle) interactions that may occur in this protocol between new
   features and existing features which result in a significant
   reduction in over all security.  Therefore, this document does not
   define an extension procedure.  Instead requests to define new tag
   values (say for new encryption algorithms for example) should be
   forwarded to the IESG Security Area Directors for consideration or
   forwarding to the appropriate IETF Working Group for consideration.

Abstract

   This document is maintained in order to publish all necessary
   information needed to develop interoperable applications based on the
   OpenPGP format. It is not a step-by-step cookbook for writing an
   application. It describes only the format and methods needed to read,
   check, generate, and write conforming packets crossing any network.
   It does not deal with storage and implementation questions.  It does,
ToP   noToC   RFC2440 - Page 2
   however, discuss implementation issues necessary to avoid security
   flaws.

   Open-PGP software uses a combination of strong public-key and
   symmetric cryptography to provide security services for electronic
   communications and data storage.  These services include
   confidentiality, key management, authentication, and digital
   signatures. This document specifies the message formats used in
   OpenPGP.

Table of Contents

            Status of this Memo                                       1
            IESG Note                                                 1
            Abstract                                                  1
            Table of Contents                                         2
   1.       Introduction                                              4
   1.1.     Terms                                                     5
   2.       General functions                                         5
   2.1.     Confidentiality via Encryption                            5
   2.2.     Authentication via Digital signature                      6
   2.3.     Compression                                               7
   2.4.     Conversion to Radix-64                                    7
   2.5.     Signature-Only Applications                               7
   3.       Data Element Formats                                      7
   3.1.     Scalar numbers                                            8
   3.2.     Multi-Precision Integers                                  8
   3.3.     Key IDs                                                   8
   3.4.     Text                                                      8
   3.5.     Time fields                                               9
   3.6.     String-to-key (S2K) specifiers                            9
   3.6.1.   String-to-key (S2k) specifier types                       9
   3.6.1.1. Simple S2K                                                9
   3.6.1.2. Salted S2K                                               10
   3.6.1.3. Iterated and Salted S2K                                  10
   3.6.2.   String-to-key usage                                      11
   3.6.2.1. Secret key encryption                                    11
   3.6.2.2. Symmetric-key message encryption                         11
   4.       Packet Syntax                                            12
   4.1.     Overview                                                 12
   4.2.     Packet Headers                                           12
   4.2.1.   Old-Format Packet Lengths                                13
   4.2.2.   New-Format Packet Lengths                                13
   4.2.2.1. One-Octet Lengths                                        14
   4.2.2.2. Two-Octet Lengths                                        14
   4.2.2.3. Five-Octet Lengths                                       14
   4.2.2.4. Partial Body Lengths                                     14
   4.2.3.   Packet Length Examples                                   14
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   4.3.     Packet Tags                                              15
   5.       Packet Types                                             16
   5.1.     Public-Key Encrypted Session Key Packets (Tag 1)         16
   5.2.     Signature Packet (Tag 2)                                 17
   5.2.1.   Signature Types                                          17
   5.2.2.   Version 3 Signature Packet Format                        19
   5.2.3.   Version 4 Signature Packet Format                        21
   5.2.3.1. Signature Subpacket Specification                        22
   5.2.3.2. Signature Subpacket Types                                24
   5.2.3.3. Signature creation time                                  25
   5.2.3.4. Issuer                                                   25
   5.2.3.5. Key expiration time                                      25
   5.2.3.6. Preferred symmetric algorithms                           25
   5.2.3.7. Preferred hash algorithms                                25
   5.2.3.8. Preferred compression algorithms                         26
   5.2.3.9. Signature expiration time                                26
   5.2.3.10. Exportable Certification                                26
   5.2.3.11. Revocable                                               27
   5.2.3.12. Trust signature                                         27
   5.2.3.13. Regular expression                                      27
   5.2.3.14. Revocation key                                          27
   5.2.3.15. Notation Data                                           28
   5.2.3.16. Key server preferences                                  28
   5.2.3.17. Preferred key server                                    29
   5.2.3.18. Primary user id                                         29
   5.2.3.19. Policy URL                                              29
   5.2.3.20. Key Flags                                               29
   5.2.3.21. Signer's User ID                                        30
   5.2.3.22. Reason for Revocation                                   30
   5.2.4.   Computing Signatures                                     31
   5.2.4.1. Subpacket Hints                                          32
   5.3.     Symmetric-Key Encrypted Session-Key Packets (Tag 3)      32
   5.4.     One-Pass Signature Packets (Tag 4)                       33
   5.5.     Key Material Packet                                      34
   5.5.1.   Key Packet Variants                                      34
   5.5.1.1. Public Key Packet (Tag 6)                                34
   5.5.1.2. Public Subkey Packet (Tag 14)                            34
   5.5.1.3. Secret Key Packet (Tag 5)                                35
   5.5.1.4. Secret Subkey Packet (Tag 7)                             35
   5.5.2.   Public Key Packet Formats                                35
   5.5.3.   Secret Key Packet Formats                                37
   5.6.     Compressed Data Packet (Tag 8)                           38
   5.7.     Symmetrically Encrypted Data Packet (Tag 9)              39
   5.8.     Marker Packet (Obsolete Literal Packet) (Tag 10)         39
   5.9.     Literal Data Packet (Tag 11)                             40
   5.10.    Trust Packet (Tag 12)                                    40
   5.11.    User ID Packet (Tag 13)                                  41
   6.       Radix-64 Conversions                                     41
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   6.1.     An Implementation of the CRC-24 in "C"                   42
   6.2.     Forming ASCII Armor                                      42
   6.3.     Encoding Binary in Radix-64                              44
   6.4.     Decoding Radix-64                                        46
   6.5.     Examples of Radix-64                                     46
   6.6.     Example of an ASCII Armored Message                      47
   7.       Cleartext signature framework                            47
   7.1.     Dash-Escaped Text                                        47
   8.       Regular Expressions                                      48
   9.       Constants                                                49
   9.1.     Public Key Algorithms                                    49
   9.2.     Symmetric Key Algorithms                                 49
   9.3.     Compression Algorithms                                   50
   9.4.     Hash Algorithms                                          50
   10.      Packet Composition                                       50
   10.1.    Transferable Public Keys                                 50
   10.2.    OpenPGP Messages                                         52
   10.3.    Detached Signatures                                      52
   11.      Enhanced Key Formats                                     52
   11.1.    Key Structures                                           52
   11.2.    Key IDs and Fingerprints                                 53
   12.      Notes on Algorithms                                      54
   12.1.    Symmetric Algorithm Preferences                          54
   12.2.    Other Algorithm Preferences                              55
   12.2.1.  Compression Preferences                                  56
   12.2.2.  Hash Algorithm Preferences                               56
   12.3.    Plaintext                                                56
   12.4.    RSA                                                      56
   12.5.    Elgamal                                                  57
   12.6.    DSA                                                      58
   12.7.    Reserved Algorithm Numbers                               58
   12.8.    OpenPGP CFB mode                                         58
   13.      Security Considerations                                  59
   14.      Implementation Nits                                      60
   15.      Authors and Working Group Chair                          62
   16.      References                                               63
   17.      Full Copyright Statement                                 65

1. Introduction

   This document provides information on the message-exchange packet
   formats used by OpenPGP to provide encryption, decryption, signing,
   and key management functions. It builds on the foundation provided in
   RFC 1991 "PGP Message Exchange Formats."
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1.1. Terms

     * OpenPGP - This is a definition for security software that uses
       PGP 5.x as a basis.

     * PGP - Pretty Good Privacy. PGP is a family of software systems
       developed by Philip R. Zimmermann from which OpenPGP is based.

     * PGP 2.6.x - This version of PGP has many variants, hence the term
       PGP 2.6.x. It used only RSA, MD5, and IDEA for its cryptographic
       transforms. An informational RFC, RFC 1991, was written
       describing this version of PGP.

     * PGP 5.x - This version of PGP is formerly known as "PGP 3" in the
       community and also in the predecessor of this document, RFC 1991.
       It has new formats and corrects a number of problems in the PGP
       2.6.x design. It is referred to here as PGP 5.x because that
       software was the first release of the "PGP 3" code base.

   "PGP", "Pretty Good", and "Pretty Good Privacy" are trademarks of
   Network Associates, Inc. and are used with permission.

   This document uses the terms "MUST", "SHOULD", and "MAY" as defined
   in RFC 2119, along with the negated forms of those terms.

2. General functions

   OpenPGP provides data integrity services for messages and data files
   by using these core technologies:

     - digital signatures

     - encryption

     - compression

     - radix-64 conversion

   In addition, OpenPGP provides key management and certificate
   services, but many of these are beyond the scope of this document.

2.1. Confidentiality via Encryption

   OpenPGP uses two encryption methods to provide confidentiality:
   symmetric-key encryption and public key encryption. With public-key
   encryption, the object is encrypted using a symmetric encryption
   algorithm.  Each symmetric key is used only once. A new "session key"
   is generated as a random number for each message. Since it is used
ToP   noToC   RFC2440 - Page 6
   only once, the session key is bound to the message and transmitted
   with it.  To protect the key, it is encrypted with the receiver's
   public key. The sequence is as follows:

   1.  The sender creates a message.

   2.  The sending OpenPGP generates a random number to be used as a
       session key for this message only.

   3.  The session key is encrypted using each recipient's public key.
       These "encrypted session keys" start the message.

   4.  The sending OpenPGP encrypts the message using the session key,
       which forms the remainder of the message. Note that the message
       is also usually compressed.

   5.  The receiving OpenPGP decrypts the session key using the
       recipient's private key.

   6.  The receiving OpenPGP decrypts the message using the session key.
       If the message was compressed, it will be decompressed.

   With symmetric-key encryption, an object may be encrypted with a
   symmetric key derived from a passphrase (or other shared secret), or
   a two-stage mechanism similar to the public-key method described
   above in which a session key is itself encrypted with a symmetric
   algorithm keyed from a shared secret.

   Both digital signature and confidentiality services may be applied to
   the same message. First, a signature is generated for the message and
   attached to the message. Then, the message plus signature is
   encrypted using a symmetric session key. Finally, the session key is
   encrypted using public-key encryption and prefixed to the encrypted
   block.

2.2. Authentication via Digital signature

   The digital signature uses a hash code or message digest algorithm,
   and a public-key signature algorithm. The sequence is as follows:

   1.  The sender creates a message.

   2.  The sending software generates a hash code of the message.

   3.  The sending software generates a signature from the hash code
       using the sender's private key.

   4.  The binary signature is attached to the message.
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   5.  The receiving software keeps a copy of the message signature.

   6.  The receiving software generates a new hash code for the
       received message and verifies it using the message's signature.
       If the verification is successful, the message is accepted as
       authentic.

2.3. Compression

   OpenPGP implementations MAY compress the message after applying the
   signature but before encryption.

2.4. Conversion to Radix-64

   OpenPGP's underlying native representation for encrypted messages,
   signature certificates, and keys is a stream of arbitrary octets.
   Some systems only permit the use of blocks consisting of seven-bit,
   printable text. For transporting OpenPGP's native raw binary octets
   through channels that are not safe to raw binary data, a printable
   encoding of these binary octets is needed.  OpenPGP provides the
   service of converting the raw 8-bit binary octet stream to a stream
   of printable ASCII characters, called Radix-64 encoding or ASCII
   Armor.

   Implementations SHOULD provide Radix-64 conversions.

   Note that many applications, particularly messaging applications,
   will want more advanced features as described in the OpenPGP-MIME
   document, RFC 2015. An application that implements OpenPGP for
   messaging SHOULD implement OpenPGP-MIME.

2.5. Signature-Only Applications

   OpenPGP is designed for applications that use both encryption and
   signatures, but there are a number of problems that are solved by a
   signature-only implementation. Although this specification requires
   both encryption and signatures, it is reasonable for there to be
   subset implementations that are non-comformant only in that they omit
   encryption.

3. Data Element Formats

   This section describes the data elements used by OpenPGP.
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3.1. Scalar numbers

   Scalar numbers are unsigned, and are always stored in big-endian
   format. Using n[k] to refer to the kth octet being interpreted, the
   value of a two-octet scalar is ((n[0] << 8) + n[1]). The value of a
   four-octet scalar is ((n[0] << 24) + (n[1] << 16) + (n[2] << 8) +
   n[3]).

3.2. Multi-Precision Integers

   Multi-Precision Integers (also called MPIs) are unsigned integers
   used to hold large integers such as the ones used in cryptographic
   calculations.

   An MPI consists of two pieces: a two-octet scalar that is the length
   of the MPI in bits followed by a string of octets that contain the
   actual integer.

   These octets form a big-endian number; a big-endian number can be
   made into an MPI by prefixing it with the appropriate length.

   Examples:

   (all numbers are in hexadecimal)

   The string of octets [00 01 01] forms an MPI with the value 1. The
   string [00 09 01 FF] forms an MPI with the value of 511.

   Additional rules:

   The size of an MPI is ((MPI.length + 7) / 8) + 2 octets.

   The length field of an MPI describes the length starting from its
   most significant non-zero bit. Thus, the MPI [00 02 01] is not formed
   correctly. It should be [00 01 01].

3.3. Key IDs

   A Key ID is an eight-octet scalar that identifies a key.
   Implementations SHOULD NOT assume that Key IDs are unique. The
   section, "Enhanced Key Formats" below describes how Key IDs are
   formed.

3.4. Text

   The default character set for text is the UTF-8 [RFC2279] encoding of
   Unicode [ISO10646].
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3.5. Time fields

   A time field is an unsigned four-octet number containing the number
   of seconds elapsed since midnight, 1 January 1970 UTC.

3.6. String-to-key (S2K) specifiers

   String-to-key (S2K) specifiers are used to convert passphrase strings
   into symmetric-key encryption/decryption keys.  They are used in two
   places, currently: to encrypt the secret part of private keys in the
   private keyring, and to convert passphrases to encryption keys for
   symmetrically encrypted messages.

3.6.1. String-to-key (S2k) specifier types

   There are three types of S2K specifiers currently supported, as
   follows:

3.6.1.1. Simple S2K

   This directly hashes the string to produce the key data.  See below
   for how this hashing is done.

       Octet 0:        0x00
       Octet 1:        hash algorithm

   Simple S2K hashes the passphrase to produce the session key.  The
   manner in which this is done depends on the size of the session key
   (which will depend on the cipher used) and the size of the hash
   algorithm's output. If the hash size is greater than or equal to the
   session key size, the high-order (leftmost) octets of the hash are
   used as the key.

   If the hash size is less than the key size, multiple instances of the
   hash context are created -- enough to produce the required key data.
   These instances are preloaded with 0, 1, 2, ... octets of zeros (that
   is to say, the first instance has no preloading, the second gets
   preloaded with 1 octet of zero, the third is preloaded with two
   octets of zeros, and so forth).

   As the data is hashed, it is given independently to each hash
   context. Since the contexts have been initialized differently, they
   will each produce different hash output.  Once the passphrase is
   hashed, the output data from the multiple hashes is concatenated,
   first hash leftmost, to produce the key data, with any excess octets
   on the right discarded.
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3.6.1.2. Salted S2K

   This includes a "salt" value in the S2K specifier -- some arbitrary
   data -- that gets hashed along with the passphrase string, to help
   prevent dictionary attacks.

       Octet 0:        0x01
       Octet 1:        hash algorithm
       Octets 2-9:     8-octet salt value

   Salted S2K is exactly like Simple S2K, except that the input to the
   hash function(s) consists of the 8 octets of salt from the S2K
   specifier, followed by the passphrase.

3.6.1.3. Iterated and Salted S2K

   This includes both a salt and an octet count.  The salt is combined
   with the passphrase and the resulting value is hashed repeatedly.
   This further increases the amount of work an attacker must do to try
   dictionary attacks.

       Octet  0:        0x03
       Octet  1:        hash algorithm
       Octets 2-9:      8-octet salt value
       Octet  10:       count, a one-octet, coded value

   The count is coded into a one-octet number using the following
   formula:

       #define EXPBIAS 6
           count = ((Int32)16 + (c & 15)) << ((c >> 4) + EXPBIAS);

   The above formula is in C, where "Int32" is a type for a 32-bit
   integer, and the variable "c" is the coded count, Octet 10.

   Iterated-Salted S2K hashes the passphrase and salt data multiple
   times. The total number of octets to be hashed is specified in the
   encoded count in the S2K specifier.  Note that the resulting count
   value is an octet count of how many octets will be hashed, not an
   iteration count.

   Initially, one or more hash contexts are set up as with the other S2K
   algorithms, depending on how many octets of key data are needed.
   Then the salt, followed by the passphrase data is repeatedly hashed
   until the number of octets specified by the octet count has been
   hashed.  The one exception is that if the octet count is less than
   the size of the salt plus passphrase, the full salt plus passphrase
   will be hashed even though that is greater than the octet count.
ToP   noToC   RFC2440 - Page 11
   After the hashing is done the data is unloaded from the hash
   context(s) as with the other S2K algorithms.

3.6.2. String-to-key usage

   Implementations SHOULD use salted or iterated-and-salted S2K
   specifiers, as simple S2K specifiers are more vulnerable to
   dictionary attacks.

3.6.2.1. Secret key encryption

   An S2K specifier can be stored in the secret keyring to specify how
   to convert the passphrase to a key that unlocks the secret data.
   Older versions of PGP just stored a cipher algorithm octet preceding
   the secret data or a zero to indicate that the secret data was
   unencrypted. The MD5 hash function was always used to convert the
   passphrase to a key for the specified cipher algorithm.

   For compatibility, when an S2K specifier is used, the special value
   255 is stored in the position where the hash algorithm octet would
   have been in the old data structure.  This is then followed
   immediately by a one-octet algorithm identifier, and then by the S2K
   specifier as encoded above.

   Therefore, preceding the secret data there will be one of these
   possibilities:

       0:           secret data is unencrypted (no pass phrase)
       255:         followed by algorithm octet and S2K specifier
       Cipher alg:  use Simple S2K algorithm using MD5 hash

   This last possibility, the cipher algorithm number with an implicit
   use of MD5 and IDEA, is provided for backward compatibility; it MAY
   be understood, but SHOULD NOT be generated, and is deprecated.

   These are followed by an 8-octet Initial Vector for the decryption of
   the secret values, if they are encrypted, and then the secret key
   values themselves.

3.6.2.2. Symmetric-key message encryption

   OpenPGP can create a Symmetric-key Encrypted Session Key (ESK) packet
   at the front of a message.  This is used to allow S2K specifiers to
   be used for the passphrase conversion or to create messages with a
   mix of symmetric-key ESKs and public-key ESKs. This allows a message
   to be decrypted either with a passphrase or a public key.
ToP   noToC   RFC2440 - Page 12
   PGP 2.X always used IDEA with Simple string-to-key conversion when
   encrypting a message with a symmetric algorithm. This is deprecated,
   but MAY be used for backward-compatibility.

4. Packet Syntax

   This section describes the packets used by OpenPGP.

4.1. Overview

   An OpenPGP message is constructed from a number of records that are
   traditionally called packets. A packet is a chunk of data that has a
   tag specifying its meaning. An OpenPGP message, keyring, certificate,
   and so forth consists of a number of packets. Some of those packets
   may contain other OpenPGP packets (for example, a compressed data
   packet, when uncompressed, contains OpenPGP packets).

   Each packet consists of a packet header, followed by the packet body.
   The packet header is of variable length.

4.2. Packet Headers

   The first octet of the packet header is called the "Packet Tag." It
   determines the format of the header and denotes the packet contents.
   The remainder of the packet header is the length of the packet.

   Note that the most significant bit is the left-most bit, called bit
   7. A mask for this bit is 0x80 in hexadecimal.

              +---------------+
         PTag |7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0|
              +---------------+
         Bit 7 -- Always one
         Bit 6 -- New packet format if set

   PGP 2.6.x only uses old format packets. Thus, software that
   interoperates with those versions of PGP must only use old format
   packets. If interoperability is not an issue, either format may be
   used. Note that old format packets have four bits of content tags,
   and new format packets have six; some features cannot be used and
   still be backward-compatible.

   Old format packets contain:

         Bits 5-2 -- content tag
         Bits 1-0 - length-type
ToP   noToC   RFC2440 - Page 13
   New format packets contain:

         Bits 5-0 -- content tag

4.2.1. Old-Format Packet Lengths

   The meaning of the length-type in old-format packets is:

   0 - The packet has a one-octet length. The header is 2 octets long.

   1 - The packet has a two-octet length. The header is 3 octets long.

   2 - The packet has a four-octet length. The header is 5 octets long.

   3 - The packet is of indeterminate length.  The header is 1 octet
       long, and the implementation must determine how long the packet
       is. If the packet is in a file, this means that the packet
       extends until the end of the file. In general, an implementation
       SHOULD NOT use indeterminate length packets except where the end
       of the data will be clear from the context, and even then it is
       better to use a definite length, or a new-format header. The
       new-format headers described below have a mechanism for precisely
       encoding data of indeterminate length.

4.2.2. New-Format Packet Lengths

   New format packets have four possible ways of encoding length:

    1. A one-octet Body Length header encodes packet lengths of up to
       191 octets.

   2. A two-octet Body Length header encodes packet lengths of 192 to
       8383 octets.

    3. A five-octet Body Length header encodes packet lengths of up to
       4,294,967,295 (0xFFFFFFFF) octets in length. (This actually
       encodes a four-octet scalar number.)

    4. When the length of the packet body is not known in advance by the
       issuer, Partial Body Length headers encode a packet of
       indeterminate length, effectively making it a stream.
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4.2.2.1. One-Octet Lengths

   A one-octet Body Length header encodes a length of from 0 to 191
   octets. This type of length header is recognized because the one
   octet value is less than 192.  The body length is equal to:

       bodyLen = 1st_octet;

4.2.2.2. Two-Octet Lengths

   A two-octet Body Length header encodes a length of from 192 to 8383
   octets.  It is recognized because its first octet is in the range 192
   to 223.  The body length is equal to:

       bodyLen = ((1st_octet - 192) << 8) + (2nd_octet) + 192

4.2.2.3. Five-Octet Lengths

   A five-octet Body Length header consists of a single octet holding
   the value 255, followed by a four-octet scalar. The body length is
   equal to:

       bodyLen = (2nd_octet << 24) | (3rd_octet << 16) |
                 (4th_octet << 8)  | 5th_octet

4.2.2.4. Partial Body Lengths

   A Partial Body Length header is one octet long and encodes the length
   of only part of the data packet. This length is a power of 2, from 1
   to 1,073,741,824 (2 to the 30th power).  It is recognized by its one
   octet value that is greater than or equal to 224, and less than 255.
   The partial body length is equal to:

       partialBodyLen = 1 << (1st_octet & 0x1f);

   Each Partial Body Length header is followed by a portion of the
   packet body data. The Partial Body Length header specifies this
   portion's length. Another length header (of one of the three types --
   one octet, two-octet, or partial) follows that portion. The last
   length header in the packet MUST NOT be a partial Body Length header.
   Partial Body Length headers may only be used for the non-final parts
   of the packet.

4.2.3. Packet Length Examples

   These examples show ways that new-format packets might encode the
   packet lengths.
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   A packet with length 100 may have its length encoded in one octet:
   0x64. This is followed by 100 octets of data.

   A packet with length 1723 may have its length coded in two octets:
   0xC5, 0xFB.  This header is followed by the 1723 octets of data.

   A packet with length 100000 may have its length encoded in five
   octets: 0xFF, 0x00, 0x01, 0x86, 0xA0.

   It might also be encoded in the following octet stream: 0xEF, first
   32768 octets of data; 0xE1, next two octets of data; 0xE0, next one
   octet of data; 0xF0, next 65536 octets of data; 0xC5, 0xDD, last 1693
   octets of data.  This is just one possible encoding, and many
   variations are possible on the size of the Partial Body Length
   headers, as long as a regular Body Length header encodes the last
   portion of the data. Note also that the last Body Length header can
   be a zero-length header.

   An implementation MAY use Partial Body Lengths for data packets, be
   they literal, compressed, or encrypted. The first partial length MUST
   be at least 512 octets long. Partial Body Lengths MUST NOT be used
   for any other packet types.

   Please note that in all of these explanations, the total length of
   the packet is the length of the header(s) plus the length of the
   body.

4.3. Packet Tags

   The packet tag denotes what type of packet the body holds. Note that
   old format headers can only have tags less than 16, whereas new
   format headers can have tags as great as 63. The defined tags (in
   decimal) are:

       0        -- Reserved - a packet tag must not have this value
       1        -- Public-Key Encrypted Session Key Packet
       2        -- Signature Packet
       3        -- Symmetric-Key Encrypted Session Key Packet
       4        -- One-Pass Signature Packet
       5        -- Secret Key Packet
       6        -- Public Key Packet
       7        -- Secret Subkey Packet
       8        -- Compressed Data Packet
       9        -- Symmetrically Encrypted Data Packet
       10       -- Marker Packet
       11       -- Literal Data Packet
       12       -- Trust Packet
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       13       -- User ID Packet
       14       -- Public Subkey Packet
       60 to 63 -- Private or Experimental Values



(page 16 continued on part 2)

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