Using other compression algos with GnuPG

[Kurt Fitzner]

David Shaw wrote:

> In fact, BZIP2 was added pretty much for archival purposes:
> http://www.imc.org/ietf-openpgp/mail-archive/msg04624.html
> 
> I wouldn't be against LZMA if it was significantly better than BZIP2.

My understanding of the reason behind compression in OpenPGP is that it
was less to give you a smaller output file than it was to reduce obvious
redundancy in the message so as to improve resistance to cryptanalysis.

Is it cryptographically useful to have LZMA over zlib or bzip2?

Wouldn't a better approach be to add detection of compressed data to
GnuPG?  This way it can turn off compression if it sees precompressed
data.  If you are looking for better compression, you can then pipe your
data through your compressor-du-jour first, and then run it through GnuPG.

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