Secret key not available

[DUELL, BOB]

Thanks (and Hauke as well).  This just confirms my suspicion.

I don't get as much info returned as you guys but that's probably because I
Have an "old" gpg version on my system (1.4.11):

bd9439 at dspsas01 $ gpg --list-packets < optout_050912.zip.gpg
gpg: WARNING: using insecure memory!
gpg: please see http://www.gnupg.org/faq.html for more information
:pubkey enc packet: version 3, algo 16, keyid 22A9F17B1B8A6A37
        data: [1020 bits]
        data: [1023 bits]
:encrypted data packet:
        length: unknown
        mdc_method: 2
gpg: encrypted with ELG-E key, ID 1B8A6A37
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available

But it is enough to confirm that this is not my key; I'll ask them to resend.

And BTW, I really enjoy reading all the crypto discussions, although I
only understand about one percent.  I suppose that makes me a "one percenter".

Thanks again for the help!

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Kahn Gillmor [mailto:dkg at fifthhorseman.net] 
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 7:27 AM
To: DUELL, BOB
Cc: GnuPG Users
Subject: Re: Secret key not available

On 05/25/2012 09:39 AM, DUELL, BOB wrote:
> 1.  Attempting to decrypt a file that was sent to me by someone else, 
>     I get this message:
> 
>     gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
> 
>     Could that mean the file was not encrypted with my public key?

yes, that is one plausible explanation.  Another possibility is that you
don't actually have your secret key on the computer you're currently using.

> 2.  Assuming the above it "yes", is there a command I can use to
>     display what key(s) were used to encrypt the file?

sure, you could use gpg --list-packets, and redirect standard input to
pull from the file in question:

0 dkg at pip:~$ gpg --list-packets < test.gpg
:pubkey enc packet: version 3, algo 1, keyid DF7B7722C193565B
	data: [2046 bits]
:encrypted data packet:
	length: 58
	mdc_method: 2
gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit RSA key, ID 0xDF7B7722C193565B, created
2011-11-07
      "Werner Koch <wk at gnupg.org>"
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
2 dkg at pip:~$

hth,

	--dkg