IDEA

[Todd L. Brooks]

I know this problem. When you create a key pair, algorithm preferences are
saved along with it. When GnuPG creates a key pair, the prefences are:
"Use the Twofish algorithm if available, otherwise use CAST5, and only if
you can't do that, use 3DES".  

The bug is in PGP:  It doesn't understand what TwoFish is (There is no
standard descriptor for Twofish in the OpenPGP specification yet). So it
prints "IDEA" in the key properties box.

BUT, when it come to actually encrypting the message, PGP works correctly:
It uses CAST5 just like it should, so you will be able to unencrypt it in
GPG just fine: IDEA is never actually used.

-Todd

On Thu, 16 Sep 1999, Brian Galbraith wrote:

> No not PGP.
> 
> The key was generated on my SuSe Linux box using GnuPG.  PGP is unable to
> produce aDH/DSS sign only key. I exported the key to floppy and then later
> imported it to PGP6.02.
> In the key information shown...the key used IDEA. (or at least Key
> properties in PGP tells me it is.
> 
> Brian
> 

---------------------------------------
Todd L. Brooks
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Yale University
9 Hillhouse Avenue
PO BOX 208286
New Haven, CT 06520-8286
(203) 432-4362 (office and voice mail)
(203) 432-4363 (acoustics lab)
(203) 432-7654 (FAX)