Can't check signature: public key not found

Question

I try to decrypt file using following command:

gpg --output file.txt --decrypt file.pgp 

File is decrypted successfully but i get an error:

"gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found"

Any idea, why I get this error?

Answer 1

You get that error because you don't have the public key of the person who signed the message.

gpg should have given you a message containing the ID of the key that was used to sign it. Obtain the public key from the person who encrypted the file and import it into your keyring (gpg2 --import key.asc); you should be able to verify the signature after that.

If the sender submitted its public key to a keyserver (for instance, https://pgp.mit.edu/), then you may be able to import the key directly from the keyserver:

gpg2 --keyserver https://pgp.mit.edu/ --search-keys <sender_name_or_address> 

Answer 2

You need the public key in your gpg key ring. To import the public key into your public keyring, place the public key block in a text file with a .gpg extension, and then issue the following command:

gpg --import <your-file>.gpg 

The entity that encrypted the file should provide you with such a block. For example, ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-keyring.gpg has the block for gnu.org.

For an even more in-depth explanation see Verifying files with GPG, without a .sig or .asc file?