How do I tell someone to access the key server

Tom's Avatar

Tom

02 Oct, 2014 08:08 PM

I am new at this and this may be a simple thing I am just not grasping. I have created a key. Now, I need 2 co-workers and I to be able to send encrypted email back and forth. So, I think they each need to get their own keys to go back and forth? What I don't understand is how the person you want to have your key gets your key? It says they can get it from the "key server". How do they access the key server to do that? Do I email the key to them some how? Can someone please explain these steps?
Thanks

  1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Steve on 06 Oct, 2014 10:47 AM

    Steve's Avatar

    Hi Tom,

    there are many options to solve this. Key server usage is one. To take that route:

    • open GPG Keychain Access
    • right-click your own sec/pub key
    • and select "upload pub key to key servers"

    Please allow a day to have all key servers sync that new information. Then tell your friends to open GPG Keychain Access (or another key manager if they are on a different OS) to search for your fingerprint.

    You can find your keys fingerprint by double clicking your own sec/pub key.

    To receive their keys the procedure would have to be done but from reversed points of view.

    You can also mail your public key to your friends. To do that, please download and install our latest nightly build.

    You'll then find an item "Mail public key" which will create a new mail with your pub key attached.

    You can find sig and SHA1 on the GPGTools Nightlies page.

    Let me know, how all this goes for you :)

    All the best, steve

    Disclaimer: This is a development version which has not been thoroughly tested yet - bugs or crashes are to be expected. Thanks for helping us test.

  2. 2 Posted by Thomas Callahan on 29 Oct, 2014 07:35 PM

    Thomas Callahan's Avatar

    Thanks Steve,
    With Apple’s update to 8.1, yosemite it says I will need an update to use it?

    Tom Callahan
    [email blocked]

  3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Steve on 31 Oct, 2014 02:42 PM

    Steve's Avatar

    Hey Tom,

    we are currently working on a beta release for OS X 10.10. We'll update as soon as we have news.

    As a workaround you can use GPGServices until GPGMail is updated.

    All the best,
    steve

  4. Steve closed this discussion on 31 Oct, 2014 02:43 PM.

  5. Steve re-opened this discussion on 31 Oct, 2014 02:43 PM

  6. 4 Posted by b on 01 Nov, 2014 06:10 PM

    b's Avatar

    is using gpgservices as a temporary replacement for gpgmail documented somewhere? i want to upgrade to 10.10 – i'd just like some sense of the gpgservices workflow and any deficiencies (for example, can gpgservices encrypt messages and their attachments?) before taking the plunge.

  7. 5 Posted by cliff1976 on 02 Nov, 2014 08:31 AM

    cliff1976's Avatar

    I too would like to see the documentation on that.

    I fear, however, that it's a big PITA to use gpgservices as a work-around until GPGMail is Yosemite-ready. Perhaps less so for just encrypted attachments (save those from the mail message to a file, then use the gpgservices to decrypt via the Finder, or do it on the command line), but for for MIME/PGP messages, where the text of the message and its attachments are all encrypted together, then what can you do?

    1. Save the encrypted part to a file.
    2. Decrypt that with gpgservices via Finder or gpg on the command line.
    3. Then you have a not-very-userfriendly message and MIME-encoded attachments to read. In order to make that MIME-encoded attachment usable, you have to rebuild it from the message body. I don't know how to do that.

    Am I right?

    I am patientiy waiting for the GPGMail beta for Yosemite to come out. I upgraded one of my Macs already but then saw that I should wait on the others. GPGMail makes encrypted bodies and attachments so convenient that it is worth it to me to wait on Yosemite upgrades until there is a GPGMail beta ready.

  8. Support Staff 6 Posted by Steve on 02 Nov, 2014 03:14 PM

    Steve's Avatar

    Hi all,

    first: the beta is not far away.

    Then here's how to use GPGServices as a workaround:

    If you receive a PGP/MIME encrypte email, drag the encrypted.asc attachment to your desktop, open with > TextEdit and then decrypt via GPGServices.

    All the best,
    steve

  9. 7 Posted by cliff1976 on 02 Nov, 2014 04:34 PM

    cliff1976's Avatar

    Yeah, tried that and it was like I feared. I get an "encrypted.asc" file when the message is sent via PGP/MIME. When I drag that to a finder, I can decrypt it OK with GPGservices, but I get a file called "encrypted" that looks like this:

    Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
     boundary="------------040200060805020503020903"
    
    This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
    --------------040200060805020503020903
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
    
    Gawd I hate mimes.
    
    swaba
    
    Mimes suck, always walking against the wind and shit.
    
    Here it comes, via PGP/MIME.  Will it work as easily?  Hmm.
    
    --------------040200060805020503020903
    Content-Type: multipart/related;
     boundary="------------000008090908060103090105"
    
    
    --------------000008090908060103090105
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
    
    <html>
      <head>
    
        <meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3Dutf=
    -8">
      </head>
      <body bgcolor=3D"#FFFFFF" text=3D"#000000">
        Gawd I hate mimes.<br>
        <br>
        <img alt=3D"swaba" src=3D"cid:[email blocked]"
          height=3D"275" width=3D"565"><br>
        <br>
        Mimes suck, always walking against the wind and shit.<br>
        <br>
        Here it comes, via PGP/MIME.=C2=A0 Will it work as easily?=C2=A0 Hmm.=
    <br>
      </body>
    </html>
    
    --------------000008090908060103090105
    Content-Type: image/jpeg;
     name="picture.out.jpg"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
    Content-ID: <[email blocked]>
    Content-Disposition: inline;
     filename="picture.out.jpg"
    
    /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEAYABgAAD/4QAWRXhpZgAASUkqAAgAAAAAAAAAAAD/2wBDAAgGBgcG
    BQgHBwcJCQgKDBQNDAsLDBkSEw8UHRofHh0aHBwgJC4nICIsIxwcKDcpLDAxNDQ0Hyc5PTgy
    PC4zNDL/2wBDAQkJCQwLDBgNDRgyIRwhMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIy
    MjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjIyMjL/wAARCAETAjUDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAHwAAAQUBAQEBAQEA
    AAAAAAAAAAECAwQFBgcICQoL/8QAtRAAAgEDAwIEAwUFBAQAAAF9AQIDAAQRBRIhMUEGE1Fh
    ByJxFDKBkaEII0KxwRVS0fAkM2JyggkKFhcYGRolJicoKSo0NTY3ODk6Q0RFRkdISUpTVFVW
    V1hZWmNkZWZnaGlqc3R1dnd4eXqDhIWGh4iJipKTlJWWl5iZmqKjpKWmp6ipqrKztLW2t7i5
    

    So, looking forward to the coming beta and GPGMail's very convenient handling of PGP/MIME formatted messages containing more than just encrypted plain text. :-)

  10. 8 Posted by b on 02 Nov, 2014 05:35 PM

    b's Avatar

    Thanks for the replies. This sounds like a pain so I'll wait to upgrade the OS.

    The only thing I'd add is that we've been hearing "not far away" since Yosemite dropped two weeks ago...it's worthless information without a specific date or at least a vague estimate (one more week? Three? Two months?).

  11. Support Staff 9 Posted by Steve on 02 Nov, 2014 06:41 PM

    Steve's Avatar

    Giving an exact date is just as worthless if we have to postpone because some fishy behavior shows up. It should not be two weeks from today is what I can say.

  12. 10 Posted by b on 03 Nov, 2014 12:54 AM

    b's Avatar

    roger that. didn't mean to be snarky it's just frustrating. i'll be purchasing asap. i think i can just set up enigmail in thunderbird on 10.10 as a temporary measure, i'll look into it, upgrading tonight if that's the case.

  13. Support Staff 11 Posted by Steve on 06 Nov, 2014 12:55 AM

    Steve's Avatar

    Hi everybody,

    

we've finally finished the first beta of GPGMail for Yosemite and it's available now.
    Read more: https://gpgtools.org/news

    I'm closing this discussion as we do now indeed have the beta. Yey!

    For any feedback on the beta please do open new discussions with the Category set to "Beta Feedback".

    Thank you all for your patience, while you've waited for the beta.

    All the best (:
    steve

  14. Steve closed this discussion on 06 Nov, 2014 12:55 AM.

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