PGP encrypt/GnuPG decrypt problem

Neil Williams linux at codehelp.co.uk
Tue Nov 23 18:14:21 CET 2004


On Tuesday 23 November 2004 2:51 pm, Bill Crane wrote:
> Here is the slightly modified output of a gpg --list-keys command
> # gpg --list-keys
> /root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg

WOAH! Why on earth are you running this as ROOT!!?? 

A: No good reason. Do not login as root, don't run userland programs as root, 
don't spend any longer than you absolutely must in a root environment.

> ------------------------
> pub  1024D/CC4BD445 2004-11-23 MyKeyID (MyKeyID) <bcrane at netcentrix.net>
> sub  2048g/50FA58C8 2004-11-23

>  From my novice perspective, everything appears to be in order, and yet
> when I decrypt

encrypt?

> a file with the public key using PGP and try and decrypt 
> using GnuPG, I get:

1. Check you can encrypt and decrypt on the one box first. Encrypt a file 
using GnuPG and decrypt it using GnuPG without transferring it.
2. You presumably have a key in PGP that has a secret key, try the reverse - 
encrypt in GnuPG to PGP.

> # gpg --decrypt MyFile.txt.pgp
> gpg: encrypted with ELG-E key, ID 26B23A2E

That's normally the subkey used to encrypt the message. e.g. with my key:
gpg: encrypted with 1024-bit ELG-E key, ID AD3CB326, created 2002-01-27
The public key is:

pub  1024D/28BCB3E3 2002-01-27 Neil Williams (CodeHelp) 
uid                            N Williams (CodeHelp) 
uid                            Neil Williams (general) 
uid                            Neil Williams (Linux User Group) 
uid                            Neil Williams (Devon and Cornwall LUG) 
sub  1024g/AD3CB326 2002-01-27

Check for that subkey in your PGP keyring.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
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http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3
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