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Why Can I Decrypt Files I Encrypted For Someone?

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Brian Costa

05 Jan, 2015 11:00 PM

Hey everyone,

I was always under the impression that once a file was encrypted, only the person who's public key I used to encrypt it could open it, but I'm finding that once encrypted, I can decrypt them. I guess it does make some kind of sense that if I did the encrypting, I can decrypt it, but still, isn't this a little strange? Anyone else have this issue?

GPG Keychain Access: 1.1.3
GPG Services: 1.9.2
Mac GPG2: 2.0.2.2
GPG Preferences: 1.0.2
OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

--Brian

This discussion was closed! See this FAQ for more information:

1. How to encrypt and sign text or files with GPG Services?

   Encrypt files

   1. right-click the file or folder you want to encrypt in Finder and select Services > OpenPGP: Encrypt File
      
   2. select recipients to encrypt the message with their public keys - if you only want to encrypt for yourself you need to tick the Add to Recipients option in the Your Key: section
      
   3. optionally sign the file to ensure it did not get tampered with when decrypting after some time
      
   4. click ...
   See more..

1. 1 Posted by Brian Costa on 05 Jan, 2015 11:03 PM

   

   Ah! Just sad this FAQ about "Add to Recipients" this might fix my issue. I'll check it when I get home.

   --Brian

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2. 2 Posted by Brian Costa on 06 Jan, 2015 03:17 AM

   

   Yep. That seemed to do the trick!

   But sometimes I can't encrypt something unless I check that checkbox. I'll post a new thread.

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Steve on 22 Jan, 2015 07:15 PM

   

   Hi Brian,

   glad you figured this one out yourself already. It's indeed the case that we default to on for "Add to recipients" for your own default key.

   So if you do not want files or text to encrypt to your key as well as the recipients key, make sure to uncheck that box.

   As for your second question, that was indeed a bug. The good news is, that it's already fixed.

   Could you please download and install our latest nightly build and see if the problem persists. That page also has sig and SHA1 to verify the download.

   It seems you did not create a second discussion, is that correct?

   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.

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4. 4 Posted by Brian Costa on 22 Jan, 2015 07:55 PM

   

   Hey Steve,

   So we're looking once again about updating the PGPServices App?

   --Bri

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5. Support Staff 5 Posted by Steve on 22 Jan, 2015 07:56 PM

   

   Hehe, yes that's true. Switch to the nightly channel and update and the issue should be gone.

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6. 6 Posted by Brian Costa on 22 Jan, 2015 07:58 PM

   

   Cool. Should I update the rest of the Apps too while I'm there you think?

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7. Support Staff 7 Posted by Steve on 22 Jan, 2015 08:01 PM

   

   That depends how much you like living life on the cutting edge. We do test the nightly build, I'm on it most of the time to make sure things are working. So if you want to help testing, the nightly build is the way to go.

   But every now and then should we decide to introduce new features life in the nightly channel can be bumpy sometimes :)

   You can always switch back to the pre-release channel if you like or reinstall the Stable / Pre-release Suite from our homepage.

   Have a great day,
   steve

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8. 8 Posted by Brian Costa on 22 Jan, 2015 08:07 PM

   

   I'll just stick to Pre Release then :) GPG Services has been updated :)
   How's it looking for Beta 5?

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9. Support Staff 9 Posted by Steve on 22 Jan, 2015 08:12 PM

   

   I don't know. We have an extremely annoying bug in regards to smartcards and a few other minors to deal with. No one knows how long it will take to fix those or if it is possible at all.

   But that's what we are working on right now.

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10. Steve closed this discussion on 28 May, 2015 05:18 PM.