Mailing List Archive: gpg with current pgp keys

gpg with current pgp keys

Mar 1, 2000, 11:33 AM

Post #1 of 8 (2012 views)

Hi all, I just subscribed to the list. I have been using PGP 6.5.2 (on
Windows, 6.5.1 on Linux) so
far and wish to switch to GPG 1.0.1. The problem is that after
importing my public and secret keyrings to gpg, even if the gpg
--list-keys and gpg --list-secret-keys work and the passphrases are
correct, I get:

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "me <my@mailbox.com>"
2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03 (main key ID 61ECC81F)

gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03
"me <my@mailbox.com>"
gpg: public key decryption failed: unknown cipher algorithm
gpg: encrypted with 4096-bit ELG-E key, ID 1BA77AA6, created 2000-01-07
"she <her@mailbox.com>"
gpg: no secret key for decryption available
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available

The OS is CorelLinux (based on Debian). Maybe I am just wasting my
time because GPG is not supposed to work in the conditions
above. Please somebody help. My next problem will be how to make GPG
work under Xemacs/mailcrypt. Thanks!

Re: gpg with current pgp keys [ In reply to ]

mr.bad at pigdog

Mar 1, 2000, 11:40 AM

Post #2 of 8 (1992 views)

Permalink

>>>>> "GP" == Gamma Pi <gammapi@newsguy.com> writes:

GP> My next problem will
GP> be how to make GPG work under Xemacs/mailcrypt. Thanks!

Well, I haven't even bothered trying to carry forward my PGP keys, but
that's just me. However, I -can- tell you that it's relatively easy to
use GPG with Mailcrypt. You need the latest Mailcrypt, available here:

http://www.nb.net/~lbudney/linux/software/mailcrypt.html

There's documentation, and obviously you have to do all the
connections between Mailcrypt and your favorite Emacs mailer, but I
think all you have to do to get GPG working instead of PGP is add this
line to your .emacs file:

(mc-setversion "gpg")

Oh, and you have to use

(setq mc-gpg-user-id your-id)

rather than mc-pgp-user-id.

~Mr. Bad

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Bad <mr.bad@pigdog.org> | http://pigdog.org/ | RoR - Alucard
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: gpg with current pgp keys [ In reply to ]

marius at alpha1

Mar 1, 2000, 12:02 PM

Post #3 of 8 (1993 views)

Permalink

IIRC there's something on the gpg webpages about doing this -- seems the
secret key algorithm is stored differently. The workaround is to change
your secret key password to NULL using pgp, export it, import it into
gpg, and then change your password there.

--
Marius Strom <marius@alpha1.net>
Professional Geek/Unix System Administrator
Alpha1 Internet <http://www.alpha1.net>
http://www.marius.org/marius.pgp 0x42C74CBA *UPDATED PGP KEY 2/24/2000*

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice...
...In practice, there is a big difference.

On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Gamma Pi wrote:

> Hi all, I just subscribed to the list. I have been using PGP 6.5.2 (on
> Windows, 6.5.1 on Linux) so
> far and wish to switch to GPG 1.0.1. The problem is that after
> importing my public and secret keyrings to gpg, even if the gpg
> --list-keys and gpg --list-secret-keys work and the passphrases are
> correct, I get:
>
> You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
> user: "me <my@mailbox.com>"
> 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03 (main key ID 61ECC81F)
>
> gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03
> "me <my@mailbox.com>"
> gpg: public key decryption failed: unknown cipher algorithm
> gpg: encrypted with 4096-bit ELG-E key, ID 1BA77AA6, created 2000-01-07
> "she <her@mailbox.com>"
> gpg: no secret key for decryption available
> gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
>
> The OS is CorelLinux (based on Debian). Maybe I am just wasting my
> time because GPG is not supposed to work in the conditions
> above. Please somebody help. My next problem will be how to make GPG
> work under Xemacs/mailcrypt. Thanks!
>

Re: gpg with current pgp keys [ In reply to ]

J.Morrow at gmx

Mar 1, 2000, 5:44 PM

Post #4 of 8 (1994 views)

Permalink

Hi,
looks like the passwd thing is ok.
Maybe the person who encrypted the message used IDEA as symetric key
algorithm? IDEA is not a free encryption algorithm and that's why it's not
supported in gnupg by default.
You have 2 options:
- Tell the person who wrote the message to use CAST or 3DES as symetric
cipher. (Can be switch in PGP preferences)
- Use the gnupg IDEA extensions ( not allowed for commercial use afain )

BTW, is there already a FAQ or HOWTO on implementing this? Would be nice.

CU,
Jerome

At 13:02 01.03.00 -0600, Marius Strom wrote:
>IIRC there's something on the gpg webpages about doing this -- seems the
>secret key algorithm is stored differently. The workaround is to change
>your secret key password to NULL using pgp, export it, import it into
>gpg, and then change your password there.
>
>--
>Marius Strom <marius@alpha1.net>
>Professional Geek/Unix System Administrator

Hmmm? read you geek

>Alpha1 Internet <http://www.alpha1.net>
>http://www.marius.org/marius.pgp 0x42C74CBA *UPDATED PGP KEY 2/24/2000*
>
>In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice...
>...In practice, there is a big difference.
>
>On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Gamma Pi wrote:
>
> > Hi all, I just subscribed to the list. I have been using PGP 6.5.2 (on
> > Windows, 6.5.1 on Linux) so
> > far and wish to switch to GPG 1.0.1. The problem is that after
> > importing my public and secret keyrings to gpg, even if the gpg
> > --list-keys and gpg --list-secret-keys work and the passphrases are
> > correct, I get:
> >
> > You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
> > user: "me <my@mailbox.com>"
> > 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03 (main key ID 61ECC81F)
> >
> > gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03
> > "me <my@mailbox.com>"
> > gpg: public key decryption failed: unknown cipher algorithm
> > gpg: encrypted with 4096-bit ELG-E key, ID 1BA77AA6, created 2000-01-07
> > "she <her@mailbox.com>"
> > gpg: no secret key for decryption available
> > gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
> >
> > The OS is CorelLinux (based on Debian). Maybe I am just wasting my
> > time because GPG is not supposed to work in the conditions
> > above. Please somebody help. My next problem will be how to make GPG
> > work under Xemacs/mailcrypt. Thanks!
> >

Re: gpg with current pgp keys [ In reply to ]

wk at gnupg

Mar 2, 2000, 12:26 AM

Post #5 of 8 (1993 views)

Permalink

On Wed, 1 Mar 2000, Gamma Pi wrote:

> gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 2EAB9451, created 2000-01-03
> "me <my@mailbox.com>"
> gpg: public key decryption failed: unknown cipher algorithm

Probably this is the IDEA algorithm. To check this use the option
"--status-fd 2" which will print a warning line in this case.

An OpenPGP compatible implemenation should never use this algorithm if
it is not listed in your preferences. However if you created that
public key with PGP 5 (with IDEA support) and imported it to GnuPG
this may happen. A way to change the preferences is to change
expiration time of your key - this way, new preferences are attached
to your key.

I will enhanced the output to print the id of the unknown cipher
algorithm.

Werner

Re: gpg with current pgp keys [ In reply to ]

mstevens at imaginet

Mar 2, 2000, 2:45 AM

Post #6 of 8 (1993 views)

Permalink

On Thu, Mar 02, 2000 at 01:44:22AM +0100, Jerome Morrow wrote:
> Hi,
> looks like the passwd thing is ok.
> Maybe the person who encrypted the message used IDEA as symetric key
> algorithm? IDEA is not a free encryption algorithm and that's why it's not
> supported in gnupg by default.
> You have 2 options:
> - Tell the person who wrote the message to use CAST or 3DES as symetric
> cipher. (Can be switch in PGP preferences)
> - Use the gnupg IDEA extensions ( not allowed for commercial use afain )

I've been looking into this. IDEA is perfectly legit for commercial
use, but you will need to buy a license to do this.

I can point anyone interested at what (as far as I can tell) are the
right people.

GPG with current PGP keys [ In reply to ]

gammapi at newsguy

Mar 2, 2000, 8:15 AM

Post #7 of 8 (2002 views)

Permalink

Thanks for all the advice received from the list. Now I can use my old
PGP keys created with PGP 6.5.2 on Windows with my current preferred
configuration: Linux, Xemacs 21.1.8, Mailcrypt 3.5.5, GPG 1.0.1. I was
not able to do so before for a mix of different things, a) I was
testing on messages encrypted with IDEA which is not supported by GPG,
CAST is OK. b) for some reasons mailcrypt does not like passphrases
containing the character @. After changing the passphrases for all my
ids everything (seems to)work!

Re: GPG with current PGP keys [ In reply to ]

lhecking at nmrc

Mar 2, 2000, 8:24 AM

Post #8 of 8 (2001 views)

Permalink

> CAST is OK. b) for some reasons mailcrypt does not like passphrases
> containing the character @. After changing the passphrases for all my
> ids everything (seems to)work!

Which reminds of these HP-SUX boxen here which don't let you
rlogin and telnet if your password contains such characters.