Unable to decrypt with PGP on Yubikey
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Description
sops -v
sops 3.10.2 (latest)
gpg --version
gpg (GnuPG) 2.4.8
libgcrypt 1.11.2
Copyright (C) 2025 g10 Code GmbH
License GNU GPL-3.0-or-later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
I have an OpenPGP key on my yubikey smart card, which I can use to decrypt. e.g. this works:
gpg -d foo.gpg
But when calling sops, an error occurs
sops -d bar
Output:
Failed to get the data key required to decrypt the SOPS file.
Group 0: FAILED
xxxx: FAILED
- | could not decrypt data key with PGP key:
| github.com/ProtonMail/go-crypto/openpgp error: could not
| load secring: open /Users/fzakfeld/.gnupg/pubring.gpg: no
| such file or directory; GnuPG binary error: failed to
| decrypt sops data key with pgp: gpg: encrypted with RSA key,
| ID xxxx
| gpg: using "xxxx" as
| default secret key for signing
| gpg: public key decryption failed: No secret key
| gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
How can I debug this further? Reading https://github.com/getsops/sops/issues/189 it seems like gpg2 is supported and sops is trying out the gpg binary
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Reproduce the failure with sops -d bar and compare it with the working gpg -d foo.gpg command, using the reported sops 3.10.2 and GnuPG 2.4.8 versions. Investigate how sops invokes GnuPG for PGP decryption and how that interacts with the Yubikey-backed secret key. Done means identifying the cause and providing a verified fix or clear debugging guidance.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- go
- Domain
- cli, cryptography, security
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100