Symmetric encryption and mdc

[Per Tunedal Casual]

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Hi,
I have learned that message protection (mdc) is not used by default when
using symmetric encryption (password encryption). I can verify this when
the default cipher CAST is used: The warning "Message was not integrity
protected" is displayed upon decryption.

What puzzles me is that this warning is not displayed if I specify the
cipher to AES. Is integrity protection always used with some ciphers?

Are there any drawbacks if I specify "force-mdc" in my gpg.conf-file?

Is it possible to change the default cipher for symmetric encryption?


Per Tunedal
Keyid: 0xAE053BE0
Fingerprint: D70D 9057 A985 4944 2191 995A 2D74 F09D AE05 3BE0

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