Error Message: Encrypted Session Key is Bad ??

[Nick Andriash]

A friend and I had been exchanging a few encrypted messages the other day,
and he was unable to decrypt one of the first messages I had sent,
receiving the error message that the "Encrypted Session Key is Bad". So,
I re-sent the message a couple of times, changing my preferred Algorithm
from AES-256 to AES-128 and 3DES, and with both messages he had no
problem decrypting.

Why should it matter what Symmetric Algorithm of choice I have listed,
because when you encrypt _to_ someone, that encryption should use
whatever Algorithm the _Recipient_ has listed as their preferred
Algorithm, should it not?  

Is not the Session Key itself encrypted using El-Gamal because the
Public Key I was encrypting to was a DH/DSS Key? Why or how is GPG
encrypting the Session Key such that he is unable to decrypt it and thus
 receiving that error message? FYI, I am using a Key Pair generated
using PGP and imported into my GPG Key Ring.


-- 
Nick

    -=N.J. Andriash | Courtenay, B.C. Canada=-
Win 98SE | GnuPG v1.0.6 (MingW32) | Becky v2.00.08
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