"unusable public key" on encryption

[David Shaw]

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On Mon, Dec 29, 2003 at 05:34:28PM -0800, Douglas Choma wrote:
> >> I've run into a bit of a snag this evening.  I'm desperately trying 
> >to
> >> encrypt something using an RSA public key that someone sent me via
> >> email.  After importing the key successfully(???), I am still unable 
> >to
> >> use it for encryption.  This has never been a problem in the past, 
> >but
> >> it is also the first RSA key that I've tried working with.
> >>
> >> If I run "gpg --list-keys", the key shows up as follows:
> >> pub  1024R/3006DF31 2003-12-16 SWsoft Support Team (Generated for
> >> Rusoffice) <support at sw-soft.com>
> >>
> >> So, that looks okay...I think?
> >
> >It's probably a sign-only key.  Do this:
> >
> > gpg --export 3006DF31 | gpg --list-packets | grep flags
> 
> The results are:
> hashed subpkt 27 len 1 (key flags: 03)
> 
> I'm afraid I don't know what that means though.  :-)

It means it is an sign-only key.  GnuPG won't encrypt to it because
the key is only for signing.  The key owner needs to add an encryption
subkey before you can encrypt to that key.

David
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