certificate(1)

📦 version 0.27.0, in debian bookworm

💅 certificate(1) — bestie edition

okay so this is certificate, page 1 of the Sequoia Manual, and it is here to help you revoke a certificate. yes it's giving "we need to talk" energy but for keys. let's go 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

certificate — Revoke a certificate 🔥

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

certificate [--certificate] [--revocation-key] [--private-key-store]
[-t|--time] [--notation] [-B|--binary] [-h|--help] <REASON> <MESSAGE>

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Revokes a certificate. periodt 💅

It creates a revocation certificate for the certificate. iconic.

If --revocation-key is provided, then that key is used to create the signature. If that key is different from the certificate being revoked, this creates a third-party revocation. Ngl this is normally only useful if the owner of the certificate designated the key to be a designated revoker. iykyk.

If --revocation-key is not provided, then the certificate must include a certification-capable key. no key, no revoke, sorry bestie 😭

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --certificate=FILE — Reads the certificate to revoke from FILE or stdin, if omitted. It is an error for the file to contain more than one certificate. one (1) certificate. that's the vibe check.
  • --revocation-key=KEY — Signs the revocation certificate using KEY. If the key is different from the certificate, this creates a third-party revocation. If this option is not provided, and the certificate includes secret key material, then that key is used to sign the revocation certificate.
  • --private-key-store=KEY_STORE — Provides parameters for private key store 🔐
  • -t, --time=TIME — Chooses keys valid at the specified time and sets the revocation certificate's creation time ⏰
  • --notation=NAME VALUE — Adds a notation to the certification. A user-defined notation's name must be of the form "name@a.domain.you.control.org". If the notation's name starts with a !, then the notation is marked as being critical. If a consumer of a signature doesn't understand a critical notation, then it will ignore the signature 💀. The notation is marked as being human readable.
  • -B, --binary — Emits binary data 🫶
  • -h, --help — Print help information

🧚 <REASON> — the why

The reason for the revocation. This must be either: compromised, superseded, retired, or unspecified:

  • compromised means that the secret key material may have been compromised. Prefer this value if you suspect that the secret key has been leaked. 🚨
  • superseded means that the owner of the certificate has replaced it with a new certificate. Prefer "compromised" if the secret key material has been compromised even if the certificate is also being replaced! You should include the fingerprint of the new certificate in the message.
  • retired means that this certificate should not be used anymore, and there is no replacement. This is appropriate when someone leaves an organisation. Prefer "compromised" if the secret key material has been compromised even if the certificate is also being retired! You should include how to contact the owner, or who to contact instead in the message.
  • unspecified means that none of the three other three reasons apply. OpenPGP implementations conservatively treat this type of revocation similar to a compromised key. (yes the manpage really said "the three other three" and we are respecting it 💀)

If the reason happened in the past, you should specify that using the --time argument. This allows OpenPGP implementations to more accurately reason about objects whose validity depends on the validity of the certificate. ✨

🍓 <MESSAGE> — the text

A short, explanatory text that is shown to a viewer of the revocation certificate. It explains why the certificate has been revoked. For instance, if Alice has created a new key, she would generate a 'superseded' revocation certificate for her old key, and might include the message "I've created a new certificate, FINGERPRINT, please use that in the future."

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

For the full documentation see https://docs.sequoia-pgp.org/sq/. go read it bestie, it's lowkey a whole library 📚

sq(1) sq-armor(1) sq-autocrypt(1) sq-certify(1) sq-dearmor(1) sq-decrypt(1) sq-encrypt(1) sq-inspect(1) sq-key(1) sq-keyring(1) sq-keyserver(1) sq-packet(1) sq-revoke(1) sq-revoke-subkey(1) sq-revoke-userid(1) sq-sign(1) sq-verify(1) sq-wkd(1)

okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋 this one came from sq version 0.26.0, dated July 2022, and it absolutely ate. go forth and revoke responsibly, queen 👑

📦 where this page comes from