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Decryption Fail Code 17 & GPG: invalid armor header

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elmaildelola

13 Oct, 2012 08:44 PM

Ok, is my first time posting so I will try to make this clear and easy.

I am in a Mac with Mountain Lion, Thunderbird 16, Enigmail 1.4.5

I have problems decrypting the emails of one single person. In thunderbird I get this:

gpg command line and output:
gpg
www.pgp.com\n
gpg: invalid armor header:
gpg: invalid radix64 character 2E skipped
gpg: invalid radix64 character 2E skipped
gpg: invalid radix64 character 3A skipped
gpg: invalid radix64 character 2D skipped
gpg: CRC error; 68E6DB - 026276
gpg: packet(3) with unknown version 41

What I did (probably my mistake) was to download a version of PGP Desktop, it said it was not able to install due to my Mac OS, so I erase it. A friend came and told me about GPGServices and she install it. If I use it with all the files and emails (copy in TextEdit, etc.) it decrypts perfectly, BUT specifically the emails of this same person no! I get:

Decryption Fail Code 17

If this person sends me files I can decrypted without any problems, so she has the correct key and she is sending emails in plain text.

I think the PGP Desktop is conflicting with the GPGServices, even if I erase and uninstall everything from PGP Desktop.

Any suggestions?

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Luke Le on 13 Oct, 2012 09:06 PM

   

   Hi Lola,

   from the output in Thunderbird it looks like this problem might indeed be related to PGP Desktop.

   One thing you could try is to re-install GPGTools from https://nightly.gpgtools.org

   If that doesn't solve your issue, I think you're question is best directed to the people of Enigmail - the Thunderbird plugin you're using to handle GPG emails.

   Is the one person who's sending you these undecryptable emails using GPGServices? Otherwise I don't think it has anything to do with that.

   Hope that helps.

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2. 2 Posted by elmaildelola on 14 Oct, 2012 12:53 PM

   

   Thank you Luke,

   Just another question to instal the re-install the GPGTools do I need to uninstall the GPGServices and the other components or can I just go and install from the link you gave me?

   The one person that send me the undecryptable emails is in a PC using PGP Desktop.

   Thanks again.

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Luke Le on 14 Oct, 2012 12:59 PM

   

   Hi Lola,

   I don't think it's necessary to uninstall. Simply run the installer again, that should suffice.

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4. 4 Posted by elmaildelola on 14 Oct, 2012 06:50 PM

   

   Hi,

   Now something strange happened. I install the nightly GPGServices and I killed all the PGP Desktop files secure a full clean computer.

   Now if the person that sends me the undecryptable emails sends to me and others an encrypted email I can decrypt the email successfully in the TextEdit using Services. But if she sends an email JUST to me I get again the Code 17 error.

   Any idea why this happen, it looks very strange to me.

   Thanks again

   • Edit

5. Support Staff 5 Posted by Luke Le on 14 Oct, 2012 06:55 PM

   

   Hi Lola,

   hmm... the error code 17 means that you don't have the secret key to decrypt this email.
   So I'd guess that the sender encrypts to the wrong person (doesn't use the correct public key for you).
   Could you check in GPG Keychain Access what the short id of your secret key is (you can only show the secret keys by clicking on "Show secret keys only" in the bottom right)

   If you then forward me such an encrypted message, I can't decrypt it anyway, I could check to what key the message is encrypted and see if the key info is a match.

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6. 6 Posted by elmaildelola on 15 Oct, 2012 03:48 PM

   

   Hi Luke,

   Thanks a lot for your help.

   I did a clean install of the nightly, reset the keys, reset the computer 2 times, used the sudo kill to erase all PGP Desktop remains and now I can decrypt the emails and files using GPGServices (not Enigmail, but that's ok).

   So I think is solved now.

   Thank's for your help and your work, I love this products!

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7. Support Staff 7 Posted by Luke Le on 15 Oct, 2012 06:17 PM

   

   Uh that sounds like a tedious operation but glad you got it solved in the end.
   Is Enigmail still spilling out the same error?
   Btw. do you prefer Thunderbird over OS X Mail? Otherwise you could use Mail with our GPGMail plugin.

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8. 8 Posted by elmaildelola on 15 Oct, 2012 06:31 PM

   

   Yes it was tedious and Enigmail still spills out the same error.

   I've been thinking of changing to Mail, specially now with the update of the OS I think is better also to use all the GPG Tools.

   Its just the habit of using thunderbird for many many years with enigmail, but I will change to Mail soon.

   Thanks again.

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9. Support Staff 9 Posted by Luke Le on 15 Oct, 2012 06:41 PM

   

   Ah ok, that explains it. Mail lacks some features I think Thunderbird provides but in all the time I've been using it I've not been bit by such a feature.

   Closing this discussion. Feel free to open a new one anytime :)

   • Edit

10. Luke Le closed this discussion on 15 Oct, 2012 06:41 PM.