The Importance of PGP in the Drughub Ecosystem
In the clear web, you rely on SSL certificates (the green padlock) issued by centralized authorities like Cloudflare or DigiCert. In the darknet, there are no certificate authorities. Security is your personal responsibility. The drughub market operates on a "Web of Trust" model based on PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).
How Phishers Attack
A typical attack involves a malicious actor buying ads on Google or spamming Reddit with a fake drughub url. This fake site looks identical to the real shop. It acts as a "Man-in-the-Middle" (MitM), recording your username, password, and stealing your deposit.
The only mathematical way to distinguish a fake drughub link from a real one is by verifying the PGP signature. The real server will sign a message with the private key corresponding to the public key displayed above. A phishing site cannot do this because they do not possess the private key.
Import
Add the drughub public key to your Keychain (GPG/Kleopatra).
Challenge
Ask the drughub site for a signed message (usually found on login page).
Decrypt
If your software says "Good Signature", the site is legitimate.
OpSec Best Practices
Beyond verifying the drughub mirror, ensure your operational security is tight. Never decrypt PGP messages using online tools or JavaScript converters found on random websites. Always perform cryptographic operations locally on your machine.
Whether you are a vendor or a buyer, enabling 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) on your drughub account is mandatory. This ensures that even if your password is phished, the attacker cannot login without decrypting a PGP challenge, which requires your private key stored safely on your device.