GnuPG fails to import some PGP keys

[Werner Koch]

On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Daniele Arena wrote:

> This issue has already been addressed in the message "Problems importing a
> public DSA key" (http://lists.gnupg.org/gnupg-users-199908/msg00011.html),
> but the answer from Werner Koch was "Something is wrong with the ascii
> armor [...] Try to get the key from another source". 

I have looked again at that message and I was able to import the key
using this trick:

gpg --dearmor < msg00011.txt > x; gpg --import x

The dearmor strips the armor the same way gpg does it but creates an
outputfile even when you get a CRC error.

The CRC does make sense to protect against transmission errors but
there is no cryptograhic reason why it is needed.  Two solutions:

  a)  Write a utility to regenerate the CRC
  b)  Implement --ignore-crc-error in gpg
  
Probably you want me to implement solution b - should not be a
problem.

BTW, The keyring handling code in GnuPG is not very fast and
keyrings are anyway limited to 2GB - This is currently not a problem
but it might turn out as a problem in the future.  I am currently
working on gpg 1.1 and the keyring stuff is already much faster;
eventually (in 1.1) we will have real fast key access by using a
different way to store the keys.  The format of the keyrings will of
course be supported for import/export because this is what OpenPGP
demands.

Hth,

  Werner
  


-- 
Werner Koch				GnuPG key:  621CC013
OpenIT GmbH                             http://www.OpenIT.de

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