compatible? GnuPG & PGP 6.5.8

vedaal at hush.com vedaal at hush.com
Thu Apr 30 16:09:37 CEST 2009


>Rasta Surfer wrote:

>> Is it possible to export a key from GNUPG 1.4.[7,9] and import 
>it into  PGP 6.5.8?

>>> i know pgp 6.5.8 is older than the hills, i still imagine there 

>is a work around for some type of incompatibility.

it's possible,
but 'tedious' ;-)
[1] use the gnupg option of  --pgp6
(and, if you must continue using 6.5.8 until you can upgrade to 
something newer,
please ask gnupg users you correspond with, to also use the option 
of --pgp6 )

[2] now the 'tedious' part,
if you want to export both the secret and public keys,
then you have to remove the passphrase from the gnupg secret keys,
as the gnupg default secret key protection is newer than 6.5.8 and 
6.5.8
can't recognize it

you can then set the passphrase in 6.5.8 for that keyring,
and then set them back in gnupg for the gnupg keys

btw,
even though pgp6.5.8 is quite ancient,
it can still do some very surprising things ;-)

if you want to play around with your gnupg keys in 6.5.8
and see how 'compatible' they are or aren't

you don't have to import them at all

you can just set your pgp options (temporarily)
to point to your gnupg keyrings, and 6.5.8 will recognize them

[in the PGP tray, right click on 'Options', then on 'Files', then 
on 'browse' to find the locations of your pubring.gpg for the 
Public Keyring File, and secring.gpg for your Private Keyring File, 
then click OK]

you can now sign, encrypt, verify, etc. with almost any gnupg key
(just don't try to 'edit' a key, or generate a new one ;-) ) 

and you can compare the error messages you get when trying to 
decrypt with a gnupg key that you haven't removed the passphrase 
from, 
and a key where you have removed the passphrase


>Most people in the OpenPGP community will strongly advise you 
>against using PGP 6.5.8, for very good reasons.


there are 'too many' little incompatibility 'workarounds'
that you might need to do, if you continue using 6.5.8  ;-((


vedaal

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