Three decades of easy public key cryptography


My journey with mutt


Today I set up GPG in my mutt on sdf.org account. It wasn't as easy, as it could be. As always it is need to search some manual on the Internet, and look under the hood of the car.


First, we need a pair of keys. We could use [some tutorial about GPG].


Then we need a config file, as listed on [UseGPG]. We must remember to set own key in this config.


Then, we found that there is a problem with that config file with passphrase. So we must change official config file as mentioned on [gpg: can't query passphrase in batch mode] - "remove --batch" and "--passphrase-fd 0".


After that we are able to read and write key encrypted or signed mail in mutt. We are using "p" key before sending mail to choose mode: sign or encrypt. Mutt is showing automatically in incoming mails signed and encrypted content. To proper decryption and signature verification we must import sender's key (like mentioned in tutorial above).


That's all, but I need about 1 hour to set it up, and test it.


Public key cryptography in general


People today are sometimes terrified of being able to track or interfere with their own correspondence. There is an ongoing discussion whether to use e-mail services with the leading GAFA operators. Alternative solutions such as Proton Mail (it seems that this is mainly a "nice" packaging of what GPG offers) are also recommended. In fact, however, for three decades, we've had the ability to easily configure our keys and use them on any of these sites. Even if the website does not support it directly, you can encrypt it outside of it and pass secure content there.


In fact, in the real world, it's hard to meet anyone who uses public-key cryptography.


Update


I've got some indirect response for my thoughts. [idiomdrottning.org] mentioned Autocrypt, which looks like very nice. But... because it's three decades of easy public key cryptography neomutt (which implemented this) seems be instaled, on sdf.org, in version without support it. I wish it would be a standard.



[some tutorial about GPG]

[UseGPG]

[gpg: can't query passphrase in batch mode]

[idiomdrottning.org]


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@ Sat 12 Mar 2022 06:03:47 PM CET - Revision 1.0

@ Sat 12 Mar 2022 10:25:06 PM CET - Revision 1.1


tags: #gpg, #cli, #mutt



/gemlog/