any way to add a public key to my secret keyring?

[Owen Blacker]

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Lance wrote (2001-10-12 T 19:47 -0500):
>
> I'm stumped.  I accidentally deleted two previous keys and created a
> new one, now a bunch of email I encypted to myself I can't open
> because the keys are gone.  However I have access to the public keys
> which were uploaded to a keyserver.  Is there a way to import these
> public keys to my secret keyring so that I may use them for
> previously encrypted data?

Nope, the secretkey contains information not held in the publickey
(otherwise everyone would have your secretkey too, which would mean that
your encryption is only as good as your passphrase, which won't be very
good at all for most passphrases).

If your keys are permanently gone, so is the data encrypted to them.
Sorry, I'm sure it's not the answer you hoped for, but that's how
publickey encryption works, I'm afraid  :s

> Please reply directly to my email, as I'm not a member of the list
> just yet.

I've copied the list, for anyone else's reference.


O x
- -- 
Owen Blacker | Senior Software Developer and InfoSecurity Consultant
See http://www.owens-place.org.uk/pgp.html -- more about my PGP keys
Sig  0x3e2056b9 | 18cd 92aa 32aa 81b9 f5e8  c520 6475 6239 3e20 56b9
- --
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety --Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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