Gnupg returns false in PHP

Question

I’m using the module Gnupg in PHP and tested exactly with this code:

$keydata = '-----BEGIN PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
Version: BCPG C# v1.6.1.0

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=p4Wt
-----END PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----';

$res = gnupg_init();
$info = gnupg_import($res,$keydata);
var_dump($info);

This private key was generated for testing!

Upshot:

bool(false)

I tested with this key above and also with the "original" key, both present the $info as false, what is not expected. According to the documentation (and the comment of 9 years ago) in http://php.net/manual/en/function.gnupg-import.php was to be displayed information about the key that was imported.

No error is reported in the logs and the module is installed correctly and with all necessary dependencies, apparently.

This extension doesn’t work anymore or is there something wrong?

Answer 1

I got a solution. D

Cause of the problem:

PHP/NGINX was unable to access the folder where the file is imported and so was presented false.

Try running the same script as root using the PHP-CLI and will probably not present the problem.

Solution:

Log in to a folder outside of web access:

cd /usr

Create a folder for example:

mkdir .nomelegal

Give permission to NGINX:

chown -R nginx .nomelegal
chgrp -R nginx .nomelegal

If you are using Apache change the nginx for www-data, I believe that’s it.

After that determine the location in PHP by adding this:

<?php

putenv("GNUPGHOME=/usr/.nomelegal");

$keydata = '...';

$res = gnupg_init();
$info = gnupg_import($res,$keydata);
var_dump($info);

If all is right now PHP is able to read and write inside the folder and so can import public and private keys!

Note:

I don’t know if it’s necessary, but Centos doesn’t run gpg-agent automatically, so it should run:

gpg-agent --daemon --use-standard-socket

This was used to make it possible to generate keys, I don’t know if it is necessary for Gnupg in PHP.