You can check that the version of GnuPG that you want to install is original and unmodified by either verifying the file's signature or comparing the checksum with the one published in the release announcement.

If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you can check the supplied signature. For example, to check the signature of the file gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2, you can use this command:

$ gpg --verify gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2.sig gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2

Note: you should never use a GnuPG version you just downloaded to check the integrity of the source — use an existing, trusted GnuPG installation, e.g., the one provided by your distribution.

If the output of the above command is similar to the following, then either you don't have our distribution keys (our signing keys are here) or the signature was generated by someone else and the file should be treated suspiciously.

gpg: Signature made Fri 09 Oct 2015 05:41:55 PM CEST using RSA key ID 4F25E3B6
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key
gpg: Signature made Tue 13 Oct 2015 10:18:01 AM CEST using RSA key ID 33BD3F06
gpg: Can't check signature: No public key

If you instead see:

gpg: Good signature from "Werner Koch (dist sig)" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: D869 2123 C406 5DEA 5E0F  3AB5 249B 39D2 4F25 E3B6
gpg: Signature made Tue 13 Oct 2015 10:18:01 AM CEST using RSA key ID 33BD3F06
gpg: Good signature from "NIIBE Yutaka (GnuPG Release Key) <gniibe@fsij.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 031E C253 6E58 0D8E A286  A9F2 2071 B08A 33BD 3F06

then you have a copy of our keys and the signatures are valid, but either you have not marked the keys as trusted or the keys are a forgery. In this case, at the very least, you should compare the fingerprints that are shown to those on the signing keys page. Even better is to compare the fingerprints with those shown on our business cards, which we handout at events that we attend.

Ideally, you'll see something like:

gpg: Signature made Fri 09 Oct 2015 05:41:55 PM CEST using RSA key ID 4F25E3B6
gpg: Good signature from "Werner Koch (dist sig)" [full]
gpg: Signature made Tue 13 Oct 2015 10:18:01 AM CEST using RSA key ID 33BD3F06
gpg: Good signature from "NIIBE Yutaka (GnuPG Release Key) <gniibe@fsij.org>" [full]

This means that the signature is valid and that you trust this key (either you signed it or someone you trusted did).

If you are not able to use an old version of GnuPG, you can still verify the file's SHA-1 checksum. This is less secure, because if someone modified the files as they were transferred to you, it would not be much more effort to modify the checksums that you see on this webpage. As such, if you use this method, you should compare the checksums with those in release announcement. This is sent to the gnupg-announce mailing list (among others), which is widely mirrored. Don't use the mailing list archive on this website, but find the announcement on several other websites and make sure the checksum is consistent. This makes it more difficult for an attacker to trick you into installing a modified version of the software.

Assuming you downloaded the file gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2, you can run the sha1sum command like this:

sha1sum gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2

and check that the output matches the SHA-1 checksum reported on this site. An example of a sha1sum output is:

69c46d974e384839519acf0af762077f79def37f  gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2

For your convenience, all SHA-1 check-sums available for software that can be downloaded from our site, have been gathered below.

2d510a1a7294f2f9ef3f2e280c93c3ad9b0cdb68  gnupg-2.4.7.tar.bz2
dc6c234c76747a5ac078fe5d5300c926e2de57e2  gnupg-w32-2.4.7_20241125.exe
25697dd115703c4ba7b9d6a1a00ede65a5cbc7cc  gnupg-2.5.2.tar.bz2
324a2fa030f1cef1e49d12944b6c3cf34aeef0fd  gnupg-w32-2.5.2_20241205.exe
69c46d974e384839519acf0af762077f79def37f  gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2
cf46f64db276fd8f097fe7ef5f3ff3ebf93218b9  gnupg-w32-2.2.44_20240812.exe
bf4c6725382f267b9000847db78a00174e08cb28  gnupg-desktop-2.4.3.0.tar.xz
28e216f7e10639eb1898be9bca35d13f3e0aab36  gnupg-desktop-2.4.3.0-x86_64.AppImage
0a9386ff70a5d1f771771bf0b8db2b956e292f13  libgpg-error-1.51.tar.bz2
dd2c68e0685bb99249efeeb06046fae15b5214ba  libgcrypt-1.11.0.tar.bz2
14715e6690bc9f81d7ef17ea58805186b022f75a  libgcrypt-1.8.11.tar.bz2
781acfb012cbb5328f41efcf82f723524e8d0128  libksba-1.6.7.tar.bz2
776aac6fe4a64f29406bb498e0b2b73f2622c799  libassuan-3.0.1.tar.bz2
ae52b4d49e17f17951655512949f745385804faf  ntbtls-0.3.2.tar.bz2
6f60ce8540453e120d715f269d0c7cfd9e0b0d24  npth-1.8.tar.bz2
fb0bbb88211558c8f7e652b4b6a675b1972fba04  pinentry-1.3.1.tar.bz2
d3b4010fc4036123f9cd5eeb3616b59dcd8fdc11  gpgme-1.24.1.tar.bz2
3f8a0ba9c7821049d51b982141a2330a246beb55  scute-1.7.0.tar.bz2
2e6568911581b8bb35bfef565350a84b3f832a84  gpa-0.11.0.tar.bz2
13747486ed5ff707f796f34f50f4c3085c3a6875  gnupg-1.4.23.tar.bz2
d4c9962179d36a140be72c34f34e557b56c975b5  gnupg-w32cli-1.4.23.exe

For your convenience, all SHA-256 check-sums available for software that can be downloaded from our site, have been gathered below.

7b24706e4da7e0e3b06ca068231027401f238102c41c909631349dcc3b85eb46  gnupg-2.4.7.tar.bz2
caf2904c02c02c94cbe137f01b63e5a43dbea92d27ea66e56f0af4af2c70c170  gnupg-w32-2.4.7_20241125.exe
7f404ccc6a58493fedc15faef59f3ae914831cff866a23f0bf9d66cfdd0fea29  gnupg-2.5.2.tar.bz2
9f3407f8c85f00c90ff7a8368ea196af75eadeba86635c90f08c7f4470e8ef60  gnupg-w32-2.5.2_20241205.exe
735b8b3e6d2330f66ab98336b060d5852a1a67cb2bc47ec7d1e5411577a8cadd  gnupg-2.2.44.tar.bz2
0454f1e92679b8f7e074c6a043f243e62a8ff9fa737a459ea8a95ad4af0ddb84  gnupg-w32-2.2.44_20240812.exe
81e0800cc090f8f387cee8e59b9f742f2e6d2d81a408414fc051a8df64e37d90  gnupg-desktop-2.4.3.0.tar.xz
4e6592eb820a853804f9bd1f39ee545af712b0cabd0bf4a773ffddaff12fdd33  gnupg-desktop-2.4.3.0-x86_64.AppImage
be0f1b2db6b93eed55369cdf79f19f72750c8c7c39fc20b577e724545427e6b2  libgpg-error-1.51.tar.bz2
09120c9867ce7f2081d6aaa1775386b98c2f2f246135761aae47d81f58685b9c  libgcrypt-1.11.0.tar.bz2
c98249fb5bb1f6017f5f9bf484327a940b59075bca7c46fa69ebb54098249860  libgcrypt-1.8.11.tar.bz2
cf72510b8ebb4eb6693eef765749d83677a03c79291a311040a5bfd79baab763  libksba-1.6.7.tar.bz2
c8f0f42e6103dea4b1a6a483cb556654e97302c7465308f58363778f95f194b1  libassuan-3.0.1.tar.bz2
bdfcb99024acec9c6c4b998ad63bb3921df4cfee4a772ad6c0ca324dbbf2b07c  ntbtls-0.3.2.tar.bz2
8bd24b4f23a3065d6e5b26e98aba9ce783ea4fd781069c1b35d149694e90ca3e  npth-1.8.tar.bz2
bc72ee27c7239007ab1896c3c2fae53b076e2c9bd2483dc2769a16902bce8c04  pinentry-1.3.1.tar.bz2
ea05d0258e71061d61716584ec34cef59330a91340571edc46b78374973ba85f  gpgme-1.24.1.tar.bz2
437fe758b27c243a5ee2535c6b065ea1d09f2c9a02d83567d2f934bb6395c249  scute-1.7.0.tar.bz2
26a8fa5bf70541cb741f0c71b7cfe291b1ea56eab68eeb07aa962cef5cdf33cc  gpa-0.11.0.tar.bz2
c9462f17e651b6507848c08c430c791287cd75491f8b5a8b50c6ed46b12678ba  gnupg-1.4.23.tar.bz2