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To: Peo Nilsson <per-olof.nilsson@comhem.se>
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From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:54:45 -0500
In-Reply-To: <1195144649.48014.4.camel@zeus.se> (Peo Nilsson's message of
	"Thu\, 15 Nov 2007 17\:37\:29 +0100")
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Cc: FreeBSD quest-list <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: gnupg keysize
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Peo Nilsson <per-olof.nilsson@comhem.se> writes:

> When browsing:
> http://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html#INTRO
>
> It says:
> "The size of a DSA key must be between 512 and 1024 bits".
> It also says:
> "The ElGamal key may be of any size".
>
> Who and why has defined this?

The OpenPGP standard.

[Actually, the history is a little more complicated than that, but
OpenPGP is the limiting factor at the moment.]

> In my opinion, the size of a key is a question for the user.

No one is forcing you to follow standards.
However, standards are useful when communicating with other people.