Enigmail

[Patrick Brunschwig]

On 31.07.2019 14:26, David wrote:
> Consider the fact that for 30 times Enigmail refused to accept the
> passphrase for david at gbenet.com
> 
> I decided to send an encrypted email to Erich. When selecting his
> private key there was no automatic tick in postmaster. But a tick in
> Erich's public key
> 
> On sending I thought I was going to be asked for david's passphrase yet
> again - but no - the email passed very quickly.
> 
> This begs the following questions:
> 
> (1) Why is postmaster always selcected as the default public key?
> (2) Why is it on failing 30 times to accept david's passphrase why does
> enigmail mysteriously remember it when it rejected 30 times?
> 
> Answers on a postcard please

I start to believe that your expectation of what should happen differs
from what actually happens.

The way things work in Enigmail are as follows: you select a *sender
account* in the Thunderbird message composition window. Based on that
sender account configuration (and nothing else), Enigmail decides which
key to use for *signing* your message. Remember, the passphrase is
needed for signing, not for encryption -  it does not matter if
Postmaster or Erich are in the recipients list.

If you get a dialog to choose the key(s) _after_ you hit the send
button, then those are the keys to which the message is *encrypted* to.
But again, you don't need a passphrase for any of these keys. Thus, if
you tell me that you expected to have to tick Postmaster in the dialog,
then that won't let you choose the key for signing.

HTH
-Patrick