using the same key from PGP and GPG

[Charly Avital]

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At 7:23 PM -0700 4/25/02, Vincent von Kaenel wrote:  >Hello, > >I
have  2 computers, one Linux server and on Window PC. I would like
to >share the same encryption key form both platforms. On the Linux
box, I'm >using GPG 1.06 and from the PC box, I'm using Eudora with
PGP 7.03.  > +++++In a similar situation, I have a Mac running PGP
7.0.3, and a PowerBook Running gpg 1.0.6 (with the IDEA module).

>I tried to generate a key from GPG and export it to the PC box
and >encrypt/decrypt from both platforms. It appears that the PGP
version cannot >decrypt a message encrypted from the  box. I got
an error "Bad >packet" on the PGP version.

+++++I had problems trying to have PGP 7.0.3 accept the secret key
generated in GPG (no problems with the public key), but I found a
workaround.

When trying to decrypt, in PGP 7.0.3, a message encrypted in the
GPG computer, I got error messages, ranging from "bad session key",
to "bad packets", depending on the application used with PGP 7.0.3
(Eudora, Netscape).

The problem was solved when I set GPG's options to openpgp (RFC
2440). Messages decrypted without problems or error messages or
any kind.  There were still problems with authentication of clear
signed messages (not uncommon), which were solved (only partially,
depending upon the recipient's e-mail client) with the proper sig
configuration in the options (force-v3-sigs).

>I tried different version of the export command, including changing
the > > gpg -a --s2k-cipher-algo 3des --compress-algo 1 --rfc1991
>--export-secret-keys > >proposed in the FAQ of GNUPG. It did not
work, I still get the bad packet >error.


++++I'm not literate enough in gpg to comment on the above. Maybe
the problem is not with the key itself, but with gpg's options
configuration.  That was, apparently, the situation in my configuration.

>I did also the other way experiment, meaning generating keys on
the pgp >box and exporting them to the GNUPG box and that seemed
to work just fine.


+++++I had no problems either, especially after importing the IDEA
module.

>Since I'm more confident in the open source software than in the
PGP >version, I would really like to be able to generate my keys
with GNUPG and >exporting both the private and public keys to the
PC.  > >Does someone has a solution to this issue?


+++++Just for testing purposes, I have generated more than one
keypair in GnuPG,and exported them to PGP, without any further
problems, after the options configuration.

Hopes this helps.  Charly Composed in Eudora 5.1.1b23 and signed
with Richard Chang's AppleScripts
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