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PGP 5.x and GnuPG
trevor at haligonian
Mar 17, 2000, 3:55 AM
Post #1 of 10 (1889 views)
Permalink
I've been reading through web resources on GnuPG and can't find a
definitive answer to an issue that seems to me to be THE issue for
any current PGP 5.x user interested in switching to GnuPG. The issue
is basic interoperability between PGP and GnuPG and, I believe, is
summed up in these four questions:

1. Can GnuPG encrypt messages using a public key generated by PGP
5.x?

2. Can PGP 5.x encrypt messages using a public key generated by
GnuPG?

3. Can PGP 5.x verify the authenticity of messages which have been
GnuPG signed?

4. Can GnuPG verify the authenticity of messages which have been PGP
5.x signed?

Also, do the answers to the above questions change if "PGP 5.x" is
substituted with "even more recent versions of PGP"?

From my readings on GnuPG and OpenPGP, I am guessing the answer to
all the above questions is yes. However, it seems bizarre to me that
nowhere in my reading did I find a statement similar to, "GnuPG is
completely compatible with PGP 5.x." If this is the case, I think
this should be the first piece of information in any GnuPG
documentation.

Am I missing something?


--
Trevor Smith | trevor@haligonian.com
PGP public key available at: www.haligonian.com/trevor

PGP Public Key Fingerprint= A68C C4EC C163 5C0A 6CFA 671F 05D4 0B30 318B AFD6
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
homega at ciberia
Mar 16, 2000, 5:01 PM
Post #2 of 10 (1857 views)
Permalink
El vie, 17 de mar de 2000, a las 06:55:18 -0400, Trevor Smith dijo:
>
> Also, do the answers to the above questions change if "PGP 5.x" is
> substituted with "even more recent versions of PGP"?

I don't think so (at least as far as GnuPG 1.0 is concerned).

> From my readings on GnuPG and OpenPGP, I am guessing the answer to
> all the above questions is yes. However, it seems bizarre to me that
> nowhere in my reading did I find a statement similar to, "GnuPG is
> completely compatible with PGP 5.x." If this is the case, I think
> this should be the first piece of information in any GnuPG
> documentation.
>
> Am I missing something?

Did you read www.gnupg.org/gph/en/pgp2x/t1.html? You might find that
useful. Also, there is an old document which you might still find
useful: www.technocage.com/~caskey/gpg/pgp2gnupg.html


--
Horacio Anno MMDCCLIII aUC
homega@ciberia.es Valencia - ESPAÑA
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Key fingerprint = F4EE AE5E 2F01 0DB3 62F2 A9F4 AD31 7093 4233 7AE6
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
william at userfriendly
Mar 16, 2000, 8:25 PM
Post #3 of 10 (1855 views)
Permalink
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On 17-Mar-2000 L. Sassaman wrote:
> Ugh. I misread your original question. GnuPG and PGP 6.x (and higher) are
> completely compatable (I believe) as they are both based on RFC 2440 (for
> the most part).

Well, I don't know about this. I've had a large problem with PGP 6.x not being
able to decrypt messages encrypted by GnuPG, regardless if they key it is
encrypting to was created in GnuPG or PGP.

I've posted it here, but so far no one has posted a solution. I've received
about 6 messages privately from people who read my problem in the archive who
are having the same problem and asked if I had a fix (which I don't).

- --
William X. Walsh <william@userfriendly.com>
http://userfriendly.com/
Fax: 877-860-5412 or +1-559-851-9192
GPG/PGP Key at http://userfriendly.com/wwalsh.gpg
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1c (Mandrake Linux)
Comment: Userfriendly Networks http://www.userfriendly.com/

iD8DBQE40aWp8zLmV94Pz+IRAui7AKDaf8zXRZ+Gm9jkehZ1PdGgnJCKBACfeMwu
2BPp5bdptY/7IolB6/k5iyY=
=ylpb
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
william at dso
Mar 16, 2000, 8:34 PM
Post #4 of 10 (1859 views)
Permalink
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On 17-Mar-2000 Trevor Smith wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 19:25:29 -0800 (PST), William X. Walsh wrote:
>
>>Well, I don't know about this. I've had a large problem with PGP 6.x not
>>being
>>able to decrypt messages encrypted by GnuPG, regardless if they key it is
>>encrypting to was created in GnuPG or PGP.
>
> So you're saying that GnuPG and PGP are *not* compatible and people
> using one may not be able to successfully exchange encrypted
> documents with users of the other?
>
> Or is your problem rare or intermittent, with the majority of
> GnuPG-encrypted messages being handled properly by PGP 6.x?
>

The problem is persistant, and anytime I encrypt a message using GnuPG, users
of PGP 6.5.x (for windows at least) cannot decrypt the message. It gives an
error. I've reported this a few times in the past over the last few months.

This is not an intermittent problem.

- --
William X. Walsh <william@userfriendly.com>
http://userfriendly.com/
Fax: 877-860-5412 or +1-559-851-9192
GPG/PGP Key at http://userfriendly.com/wwalsh.gpg
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1c (Mandrake Linux)
Comment: Userfriendly Networks http://www.userfriendly.com/

iD8DBQE40ae48zLmV94Pz+IRAjlyAKDEzle0vTnKpDCg7Vv5JVJkAZkkdACfVFoO
ME1v5MJaqSZiBHbvnsfLGm8=
=cch5
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
william at userfriendly
Mar 16, 2000, 9:46 PM
Post #5 of 10 (1859 views)
Permalink
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On 17-Mar-2000 L. Sassaman wrote:
> I just had him send me a test encrypted message that I tested on PGP 6.5.1
> and other versions. No problems at all...

Yes, and I then encrpted the same message to myself, and tried to decrypt it
using PGP 6.5.2 on Windows98. Same error.

I know the problem doesn't occur for everyone, but it is certainly occuring for
me, and for at least one of my customers, and for a handful of people who have
emailed me asking for a solution.

- --
William X. Walsh <william@userfriendly.com>
http://userfriendly.com/
Fax: 877-860-5412 or +1-559-851-9192
GPG/PGP Key at http://userfriendly.com/wwalsh.gpg
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1c (Mandrake Linux)
Comment: Userfriendly Networks http://www.userfriendly.com/

iD8DBQE40biU8zLmV94Pz+IRAj/hAKC61524wKUdQNdYIUKXT5y/3BRuagCgw394
+qX1hzYFOIkCc3wL/hgPD7A=
=SOTl
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
ftobin at uiuc
Mar 16, 2000, 10:00 PM
Post #6 of 10 (1856 views)
Permalink
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Trevor Smith, at 11:26 -0400 on Fri, 17 Mar 2000, wrote:

> >The reason is mainly the v3 vs. v4 key types. Note that PGP5 is not
> >OpenPGP compliant.
>
> Weird. Doesn't the OpenPGP RFC start by saying that OpenPGP is a
> proposed standard based on PGP 5.0? How did PGP5 manage not to comply
> with the RFC based on it?

The v3 keys that PGP5 and earlier created are vulnerable to certain
attacks. That is the reason they are now deprecated. In the RFC there
are SHOULD's and MUSTS. From the RFC, 5.5.2:

"OpenPGP implementations SHOULD create keys with version 4 format. An
implementation MAY generate a V3 key to ensure interoperability with
old software; note, however, that V4 keys correct some security
deficiencies in V3 keys. These deficiencies are described below. An
implementation MUST NOT create a V3 key with a public key algorithm
other than RSA."


You might be interested in browsing the section of the RFC entitled
"Implementation Nits":
http://www.gnupg.org/rfc2440-14.html

- --
Frank Tobin http://www.neverending.org/~ftobin/

"To learn what is good and what is to be valued,
those truths which cannot be shaken or changed." Myst: The Book of Atrus

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (FreeBSD)
Comment: pgpenvelope - http://pgpenvelope.sourceforge.net/

iEYEARECAAYFAjjRu90ACgkQVv/RCiYMT6OwqQCfc4klzWH0Ft3fztBQOVyVJAR3
Gv4AmQEwvyhK7fCR5QtnVRQxwaYmbx+X
=ayij
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
wk at gnupg
Mar 17, 2000, 3:37 AM
Post #7 of 10 (1858 views)
Permalink
On Fri, 17 Mar 2000, Trevor Smith wrote:

> Can GnuPG properly exchange signed and/or encrypted messages with PGP
> 5.x?

Yes, if you don't use RSA keys generated by PGP2 or PGP5,6.


Werner
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
trevor at haligonian
Mar 17, 2000, 6:39 AM
Post #8 of 10 (1857 views)
Permalink
On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 01:01:04 +0100, Horacio MG wrote:

>Did you read www.gnupg.org/gph/en/pgp2x/t1.html? You might find that

I looked at it briefly. It refers to PGP 2.x and I was asking about
PGP 5.x (which is why I repeatedly specified that version number). I
am not concerned with compatibility with "old" versions of PGP.

I am asking if GnuPG is able to properly exchange signed and/or
encrypted messages with PGP 5.x. Can it?

>useful. Also, there is an old document which you might still find
>useful: www.technocage.com/~caskey/gpg/pgp2gnupg.html

I also saw this document but it starts with this disclaimer:

Note: THIS INFORMATION ONLY APPLIES TO
PRE-1.0 VERSIONS OF GNUPG

I understood that GnuPG 1.0 and even newer versions have been
released so I assumed that the information in that document was now
irrelevant. In fact, it is based on the use of "gpg (GNUPG) 0.4.0;
Copyright (C) 1998..." That makes the document at least 1.25 years
old.

Now I'm really starting to wonder if I am missing something obvious
since you replied to my message but ignored my main questions.

To repeat:

Can GnuPG properly exchange signed and/or encrypted messages with PGP
5.x?


--
Trevor Smith | trevor@haligonian.com
PGP public key available at: www.haligonian.com/trevor

PGP Public Key Fingerprint= A68C C4EC C163 5C0A 6CFA 671F 05D4 0B30
318B AFD6



PGP Public Key Fingerprint= A68C C4EC C163 5C0A 6CFA 671F 05D4 0B30 318B AFD6
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
trevor at haligonian
Mar 17, 2000, 8:26 AM
Post #9 of 10 (1857 views)
Permalink
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:50:50 -0800 (PST), L. Sassaman wrote:

>On Fri, 17 Mar 2000, Trevor Smith wrote:
>
>> 2. Can PGP 5.x encrypt messages using a public key generated by
>> GnuPG?
>
>If is is a v3 key.

OK, next question: what the heck is a v3 key? And a v4 key (referred
to later in your reply)?

From the context above, it appears a v3 key is something produced by
GnuPG. But GnuPG is only at release level 1.0.1, correct?

>The reason is mainly the v3 vs. v4 key types. Note that PGP5 is not
>OpenPGP compliant.

Weird. Doesn't the OpenPGP RFC start by saying that OpenPGP is a
proposed standard based on PGP 5.0? How did PGP5 manage not to comply
with the RFC based on it?


--
Trevor Smith | trevor@haligonian.com
PGP public key available at: www.haligonian.com/trevor

PGP Public Key Fingerprint= A68C C4EC C163 5C0A 6CFA 671F 05D4 0B30 318B AFD6
Re: PGP 5.x and GnuPG [ In reply to ]
trevor at haligonian
Mar 17, 2000, 8:29 AM
Post #10 of 10 (1859 views)
Permalink
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 19:25:29 -0800 (PST), William X. Walsh wrote:

>Well, I don't know about this. I've had a large problem with PGP 6.x not being
>able to decrypt messages encrypted by GnuPG, regardless if they key it is
>encrypting to was created in GnuPG or PGP.

So you're saying that GnuPG and PGP are *not* compatible and people
using one may not be able to successfully exchange encrypted
documents with users of the other?

Or is your problem rare or intermittent, with the majority of
GnuPG-encrypted messages being handled properly by PGP 6.x?


--
Trevor Smith | trevor@haligonian.com
PGP public key available at: www.haligonian.com/trevor

PGP Public Key Fingerprint= A68C C4EC C163 5C0A 6CFA 671F 05D4 0B30 318B AFD6

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