Detection of sign-only vs. sign-and-encrypt keys

[Atom 'Smasher']

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On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Stoyan Dimitrov wrote:

> I'm not telling that gpg can not handle RSA keys I'm telling that using
> a RSA encrypting keys is deprecated.
======================

not according to my understanding of the latest OpenPGP draft -
  http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-openpgp-rfc2440bis-10.txt

9.1. Public Key Algorithms

         ID           Algorithm
         --           ---------
         1          - RSA (Encrypt or Sign)
         2          - RSA Encrypt-Only
         3          - RSA Sign-Only
 	<<snip>>

     Implementations MUST implement DSA for signatures, and Elgamal for
     encryption. Implementations SHOULD implement RSA keys.
     Implementations MAY implement any other algorithm.


section 12.4 mentions deprecated _forms_ of RSA keys, but that doesn't 
mean that RSA keys will become deprecated anytime soon. that section is 
actually the reference to what i previously mentioned:

>> actually... AFAIK, the RSA keys are technically the same for all 3 of 
>> the different uses; only the flags on the key specify how it is to be used.

     There are algorithm types for RSA-signature-only, and
     RSA-encrypt-only keys. These types are deprecated. The "key flags"
     subpacket in a signature is a much better way to express the same
     idea, and generalizes it to all algorithms. An implementation SHOULD
     NOT create such a key, but MAY interpret it.


  	...atom

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Comment: What is this gibberish?
Comment: http://atom.smasher.org/links/#digital_signatures

iEYEARECAAYFAkDZNyEACgkQnCgLvz19QeNDJwCfSIamymIC0+14jW8/I79TQx9i
k3EAn2wHe1oIf4Jq35cMU7j2pZ10CGyg
=l4sL
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