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On 22/05/2018 02:16, Mauricio Tavares wrote:<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAHEKYV7Q4t_D0ET6r+5xXEtWfJx2hsgcjdH8QAuup_hyY4oq_g@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
Stupid question: what is wrong with a "encrypt/decrypt old
format" flag/config option? If I have the need to use old stuff, I can
turn that on. All I see here is a "do not open old stuff" as a default
setting which should solve most issues.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
There would be nothing wrong with that whatsoever from the
perspective of users who need to access old encrypted data (e.g.
archival access purposes), which is the particular use case I have
been pointing out.<br>
<br>
However, I don't think this would satisfy those who want to ensure
that users cannot encrypt <i>new</i> data with legacy standards. In
order to prevent users from doing this (which, to be clear, is
something I agree with) there needs to be some way to make it
difficult or impossible to encrypt new data with legacy standards <i>whilst
allowing decryption of legacy-encrypted data so as not to cut off
long-time users with a legitimate present day use case</i>.<br>
<br>
If it is ultimately considered to be absolutely necessary to prevent
new data being encrypted with old standards then personally I'd like
to see a decryption-only program that would allow use cases
involving access to legacy-encrypted data to continue unmolested
with maintained software whilst allowing new data to be encrypted
only with software versions that have dropped backward
compatibility.<br>
<br>
In large part it seems to me that there is the usual (in discussions
like this) lack of recognition of the many and varied use cases that
software like GnuPG can be and is put to. Calls for <b>all</b>
backwards compatibility to be end-of-lifed do not take into account
the fact that backward compatibility in terms of decryption
capability are still valid use cases in the present day and should
rightly and properly be supported with maintained software.<br>
<br>
I agree that preventing new data encryption with legacy standards is
desirable. Just don't throw other users (who need to decrypt old
standards and old data with currently maintained software) under the
bus to get to that state.<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Mark Rousell</pre>
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