Re: PGP encrypted email - basic questions

[Tsu <tsudohnimh () gmail com>]

Your confusion lies in the difference between PGP Encryption and PGP Signatures.

Signatures are just that. They are a line a text that are unique to
that PGP user, many users add this to the "signature" portion of their
email.

Encryption only occurs when one PGP user sends an email to another PGP
user, both of which have their public side signatures uploaded to a
keyserver ( http://keyserver.pgp.com ) or have them available on their
website.

The encryption process roughly follows these steps.

I have a public/private key w/ my public published to a keyserver.

I then send an email to another user whose public has been imported
into my software. Upon sending the email it will encrypt the email so
that it can only be decrypted with their private key.

I hope this clears it up. Email me if you have further questions.

Tsudohnimh
knowthenetwork.com

On 12/29/06, Dave Moore <dave.j.moore () gmail com> wrote:
> Hello all-
>
> I'm trying to get started with PGP and there are some concepts I am
> having trouble with.
>
> I understand that a recipient of a PGP signed/encrypted message will
> have to get my public key to decrypt said message. What I don't
> understand is how this is carried out in a seemingly automatic fashion
> for many of the email messages I receive, e.g. postings from mailing
> lists, in which I see the 'BEGIN PGP SIGNED.. ' and the signature at
> the end. I didn't decrypt these messages, and I have no idea how they
> got decrypted.
>
> When I encrypt a message and send it to myself, the message I see is
> decidedly not decrypted. I did notice this header..
>
> OpenPGP: id=5847D5CF;
> url=http://random.sks.keyserver.penguin.de:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x5847D5CF
>
> in the outgoing encrypted test message I sent, which leads me to
> suspect that it might have something to do with this process, but
> still, my message is not decrypted.
>
> How does this work?
> Dave
> --
> ==========
> A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
> butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
> accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
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> efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Heinlein


--
Tsu Doh Nimh
www.tsudohnimh.com