gpg: keyserver receive failed: Server indicated a failure
Had the same error Qubes-R3.2 Debian-9 AppVM.
Added package https://packages.debian.org/stretch/dirmngr and was able to download key.
gpg --recv-keys 916B8D99C38EAF5E8ADC7A2A8D66066A2EEACCDA
Works for me.
Qubes builder gpg key fetching during build was recently disabled due to never ending gpg keyserver issues.
please upload your gpg key somewhere · Issue #82 · GrapheneOS/hardened_malloc · GitHub
No luck can try like 10 times and wait ages. If you “google” for just the fingerprint in quotes (to specific results) you find multiple people having this issue. Qubes just removed keyserver fetching for Qubes builds due to unreliability. I guess keyservers are death and won’t come back (due to GDPR).
A bug in gpg, sks(?) is preventing gpg keys from downloading. This can prevent users from downloading Tor project key in Tor Versioning. It looks like the gpg aspect of this was fixed?
Maybe find a alternate method of downloading Tor project key if sks fails in Wiki instructions.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver jirk5u4osbsr34t5.onion --recv-keys A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89
Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.DvzZefKIG4/gpg.1.sh --keyserver jirk5u4osbsr34t5.onion --recv-keys A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89
gpg: packet(13) too large
gpg: read_block: read error: Invalid packet
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
gpg: Total number processed: 0
First 3 links relate to the issue. Micah Lee brought up something interesting (3rd link).
Other reports of Tor Project key download fails. No good solutions here. wget
I think we have to give up on gpg keyservers entirely.
I’ve recently created a wiki template Template:Git clone verify - Whonix but it does not cover Qubes TemplateVMs yet, which are even more complicated due to lack of networking.
Installing Newer Tor Versions has instructions for Qubes, but it’s not a wiki template.
I wonder if we can have a generic wiki template (or one for git / one of archives) for gpg verification. Help welcome.
High-risk users should stop using the keyserver network immediately.
source:
Also on same subject:
https://dkg.fifthhorseman.net/blog/openpgp-certificate-flooding.html
EDIT:
see update → new, fixed keyserver - keys.openpgp.org
The first thing that needs to be resolved for the wiki is donwloading TPO keys. There keys are not available for donwload by git clone(?) so maybe scurl should be used?
Ticket created just now.
stop using gpg keyservers / provide OpenPGP keys for download as files from torproject.org
Wiki template created.
gpg key import
APT signing key import:
For those pages not updated yet (either because simply not done or since upstream does not provide gpg key download from web rather than keyserver):
The problem you’re addressing (if any)
Importing a GPG key using gpg --recv-keys will fail (due to a bug in GPG) in an offline qube, such as a template qube, even if a HTTP proxy is used. Furthermore, GPG has substantial attack surface of its own, and exploitable bugs in its parsing of keys have occurred in the past.Describe the solution you’d like
Provide a qubes-receive-key command that uses a disposable qube and/or the updates proxy to retrieve the key by fingerprint, and then sanitizes the key and ensures it actually has that fingerprint.
Given https://keys.openpgp.org/ is not part of the sks network and is supposedly functional, I gather we no longer have to worry about the retrieval of keys issue?
This test unfortunately doesn’t work though:
gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --recv A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89
gpg: keyserver receive failed: No keyserver available
But the onion does! 
gpg --keyserver zkaan2xfbuxia2wpf7ofnkbz6r5zdbbvxbunvp5g2iebopbfc4iqmbad.onion --recv A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89
gpg: keybox ‘/home/user/.gnupg/pubring.kbx’ created
gpg: key 0xEE8CBC9E886DDD89: new key but contains no user ID - skipped
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: w/o user IDs: 1
We should reference the onion then in relevant wiki instructions?
Good idea, if that works!
Preferably keyserver-less instructions would be better.
Use of --keyserver now is already minimal as per Search results for "keyserver" - Whonix or something that I am missing?
I might just reference that onion in those relevant locations for users that have problems with the clearnet version (10 or so pages).
Before adding a set of default keyservers I tested gpg key imports and it seems to be able to pull it from somewhere despite not having one defined in the settings. Any idea how it does this?
Not sure. gpg has a lot of stuff built-in…
https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/gpg/gpg.1.en.html
–locate-keys
–locate-external-keys
–auto-key-retrieve
–auto-key-import
–auto-key-locate mechanismscert
Locate a key using DNS CERT, as specified in RFC-4398.
pka
Locate a key using DNS PKA.
dane
Locate a key using DANE, as specified in draft-ietf-dane-openpgpkey-05.txt.
wkd
Locate a key using the Web Key Directory protocol.
ldap
Using DNS Service Discovery, check the domain in question for any LDAP keyservers to use. If this fails, attempt to locate the key using the PGP Universal method of checking ‘ldap://keys.(thedomain)’.
ntds
Locate the key using the Active Directory (Windows only).
keyserver
Locate a key using a keyserver.
Related, How can I verify Tor Browser's signature? | Tor Project | Support uses:
gpg –auto-key-locate nodefault,wkd --locate-keys torbrowser@torproject.org
So we have various options.
Picking the best technical solution if it had no traction (no actual users) (didn’t check) would also not be helpful for users.
The usefulness of these options are ver limited unfortunately and so hockeypuck is the most practical workaround. Quotes from GPG ML:
Today WKD / WKS seems to me a good compromise for the trilemma keystore, and probably the best way to get the last version of “first-party-attested” certificates, which fresh uid / sub-keys updates and revocations.
but then…
I agree, WKD should be the first choice method to publish your own key,
so long as you or someone PGP-friendly is in charge of your email domain
(it’s no use for gmail addresses, for example). But implementing WKD
yourself does not help you discover other people’s keys, unless you both
belong to the same organisation (same applies to AD, LDAP etc).Most modern software will check WKD regardless of your keyserver
settings, so if it is in use by your correspondent’s email domain, it
should Just Work. But for the majority of users, you still have to fall
back to another discovery method.
Any idea how to know what keyserver is being called up when running from commandline?