How to create self-decrypting executable?

[David Shaw]

On Thu, Mar 17, 2005 at 04:09:41PM -0500, Rusty Shackleford wrote:
> My office uses PGP to create self-extracting executable files.
> 
> I found the -c option for GPG which encrypts with a symmetric key, but
> this doesn't seem to do the next step of making the encrypted data an
> executable program that prompts for a password.
> 
> Is this feature possible with GPG?  I'm trying to automate lots of
> processes and the less highlighting and right-clicking I have to do in
> Windows Explorer, the better.

GnuPG is portable to many different operating systems, and so does not
have a SDA feature since it would involve making an executable for
every supported platform.

You can more or less do this yourself by writing a script if you like.

> PS: I've already bored everyone I work with by explaining how symmetric
> key encryption ain't all that secure, but switching to a key-based
> system is not possible in the short run.

SDAs aren't all that secure either.

David