Problems understanding IDEA problem :-)

Thorsten.Delbrouck@guardeonic.com Thorsten.Delbrouck@guardeonic.com
Fri May 3 17:04:01 2002


Hi,

this seems to be a follow-up-problem to last weeks issue --- though I've learned quite a lot about gpg in the meantime :-)

Here's a brief description of the problem again:

John Doe wants to send encrypted mail to me using "CryptoEx". I'm using GPG 1.0.7 (w32) (Hideki Saito's build).

About CryptoEx:
"CryptoEx (...) allows a choice of different standards according to requirements, such as the widely used protocols OpenPGP (...) This (...) setup guarantees that you can securely communicate with all your business partners."

Hmmm ... here's my key prefs:

--- cut ---
>edit-key 452E8863
Secret key is available.

pub  1024D/452E8863  created: 2002-05-03 expires: 2002-12-29 trust: u/u
sub  2048g/4CBAE7B1  created: 2002-05-03 expires: 2002-12-29
(1). Thorsten Delbrouck-Konetzko <thorsten.delbrouck@guardeonic.com>

> showpref
pub  1024D/452E8863  created: 2002-05-03 expires: 2002-12-29 trust: u/u
(1). Thorsten Delbrouck-Konetzko <thorsten.delbrouck@guardeonic.com>
     Cipher: AES, CAST5, 3DES
     Hash: SHA1, RIPEMD160
     Compression: ZLIB, ZIP
--- cut ---

And here's the actual problem when trying to decrypt a message:

--- cut ---
You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Thorsten Delbrouck-Konetzko <thorsten.delbrouck@guardeonic.com>"
2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 4CBAE7B1, created 2002-05-03 (main key ID 452E8863) <--- seems to be the correct key

gpg: cipher algorithm 1 (IDEA) is unknown or disabled
gpg: the IDEA cipher plugin is not present
gpg: please see http://www.gnupg.org/why-not-idea.html for more information
gpg: encrypted with 1024-bit RSA key, ID AB123456, created 2001-02-20
      "John Doe <john@doe.com>"
gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 4CBAE7B1, created 2002-05-03
      "Thorsten Delbrouck-Konetzko <thorsten.delbrouck@guardeonic.com>"
gpg: public key decryption failed: unknown cipher algorithm
--- cut ---

Now .... did I make a mistake with my key again or did CryptoEx simply pick the wrong cipher algorithm (thus violating the openpgp spec) ?

Thanks for your help!

regards,
/tdk

-- 
Thorsten Delbrouck-Konetzko