can't decrypt with the public key...

[Anthony E. Greene]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Mark Weaver wrote:
>Recently a friend and i both installed GnuPG on our Linux systems and
>we're both using a Pine interface name pgpenvelope to filter and decrypt
>messages with. The thing is using my public key he is able to decrypt my
>messages with no problem, however, i'm unable to do the same using his
>key. All my other keys work just fine, and his key works fine on his
>system. What in the world could be going on?
>
>Below is the message that I get back from gpg as it's attempting to
>decrypt the message using his key. As you can see it reports that it's
>unable to find the secret key.

When he sends to you, he should use your public key to encrypt. You will
then use your private key to decrypt. The problem seems to be that he is
using his own public key to encrypt instead of using your public key. That
means only his private key can decrypt. That is why GPG tells you that you
don't have the key. It is looking for his private key.

See this URL for a description and graphic that describes the process:

  http://www.pobox.com/~agreene/pgp/#HowWork

Tony
-- 
Anthony E. Greene <agreene@pobox.com> <http://www.pobox.com/~agreene/>
PGP Key: 0x6C94239D/7B3D BD7D 7D91 1B44 BA26  C484 A42A 60DD 6C94 239D
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Linux. The choice of a GNU Generation. <http://www.linux.org/>