Version 2.5.21 introduces Kyber/ML‑KEM, tweaks internals for newer libraries, and signals that users should move off the now‑unsupported 2.4.
On Thursday Werner Koch, the chief technology officer for the GnuPG project, announced through the Gnu mailing list that GnuPG 2.5.21 has been released.
“This release adds a few new features and fixes some bugs,” he said, adding that the main features in the 2.5 series are improvements for 64-bit Windows and the introduction of Kyber (now officially named ML‑KEM and standardized as FIPS 203) as PQC encryption algorithm. This is important because ML‑KEM is one of the cryptographic algorithms that US agencies are expected to use to future‑proof for the quantum age.
Looking ahead, Koch added, “Other than PQC support the 2.6 series will not differ a lot from 2.4 because the majority of changes are internal to make use of newer features from the supporting libraries.”
In addition, he noted that GnuPG’s 2.4 series has reached its end-of-life, so “expect no more updates.”
As always with a GnuPG update, this new version is fully compatible with previous versions, so you should have no problems when swapping out.
In case this is your first county fair, GnuPG is used to encrypt and sign data and communication. It features a versatile key management system as well as access modules for public key directories.
Although it’s a command line tool, it ships with features for easy integration with other applications. The separate library GPGME provides a uniform API, so the GnuPG engine can be used by software written in common programming languages. Also, plenty of frontend applications and libraries are available that make use of GnuPG. As an universal crypto engine, GnuPG provides support for S/MIME and Secure Shell in addition to OpenPGP.
And since it bears the Gnu name, you know it’s FLOSS, licensed under the GPLv3‑or‑later.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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