GnuPG and RSA/IDEA extensions

Rich Wales richw at webcom.com
Mon Feb 15 21:21:58 CET 1999


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I recently started using GnuPG.  I hope, eventually, to write either
(1) a front end that will autosense which decryption program (GnuPG,
PGP 5.x, or PGP 2.6.x) to use for a given message, or else (2) an RSA
extension for GnuPG using RSAREF (I currently live in the US), so that
I can use RSA keys in GnuPG when necessary.

(Note to freeware enthusiasts:  I'm very much in favour of the idea
of phasing out encumbered algorithms; my fascination with RSA and IDEA
is motivated strictly out of concerns for backward compatibility with
correspondents who are stuck with -- or sticking to -- PGP 2.6.x.)

Strictly as an experiment (!), I got the RSA and IDEA extensions and
set up GnuPG to load them.  And, I'm happy to say, they do work.  But
whenever I decrypt material using an RSA key, I get the following
diagnostic message:

	gpg: NOTE: cipher algorithm 1 not found in preferences

Is there anything I can do to get rid of this diagnostic?

Second, when I do "gpg --edit-key" on one of my RSA keys, and then give
the "pref" (list preferences) command, no preference info is shown.  Is
there anything I can (or should bother to) do about this?

Third, for what it may be worth, the list of "supported algorithms" I
get with "gpg -h" does not include RSA or IDEA.  Is this simply normal,
given that the RSA and IDEA code is being loaded from extensions rather
than being built in?

Rich Wales         richw at webcom.com         http://www.webcom.com/richw/
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Comment: Rich Wales's public keys at http://www.webcom.com/richw/pgp/

iD8DBQE2yQAeSbZJLiQU7EcRAsAUAJ9I9Q4qx1Z+IvzO1Osh7sJFBHU+IQCdHUIy
lrMalRpi/IlML2WMJ+gxWUY=
=8GIw
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