PGP Problems (not a noob question)

My PGP is acting funny and I cant figure out why. I have 2FA enabled on markets and usually my 1st attempt to decrypt the 2FA message gives me an error message but on the 2nd try it works. And vendors have been inconsistently able to open my messsages. I always incude my own key when sending a message so I can open it if I forgot what I wrote. I myself can always open those messages but they cant be opened by the receiver. I'm not sure if they try a couple times if it will open like my log in that takes a couple times and Im not gonna ask a busy vendor to try to open it several times. Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong or where I could troubleshoot? Or help me test if it's a particular key I'm using (I have a few personal keys). Any help is appreciated.


Comments


[5 Points] Throwoff666:

Fucking retards here, if you don't understand PGP don't comment. He's not encrypting twice he's encrypting to two people = himself and the vendor.

Not sure of how to solve it sorry bud, maybe reinstall his key and try again


[1 Points] endedbytheknife:

wait, are you encrypting with your key or receivers key?

if you encrypting with YOUR key and send it to vendor, they wouldn't be able to decrypt cuz they don't have your private key.

if you're encrypting with your key AND receiver's key, then both of you should be able to decrypt.

(I have a few personal keys).

if you have the pw to those, then those are PRIVATE keys. Public is what the public uses to sign so that you can open it with your private key.


[1 Points] Uruguayman:

It's really strange. Is it a "classic" 1024 bit RSA key? You can try another software, same keys, and check if the random errors continue or cease.


[1 Points] dumbassymetricEncryp:

Y'all are clueless.

TL;DR you should have used the recipient's public key and your private key.

When you generate a key pair with PGP, there isn't a functional difference between the public key and the private key. When you scramble or "lock" a message with one key, you need the other key to unscramble/unlock it. What matters between the two keys is that whichever one you choose to use as the private key must never be made public.

When you use a recipient's public key to scramble your message to them, this is what we typically refer to as encryption. Only the holder of the corresponding private key can unencrypt the message.

If you use your own private key to scramble a message, this is a shit way to keep a secret. Because anyone can use your public key to see what the original plaintext of the message was. But it actually makes serves a purpose, because it proves that you have the private key corresponding to your public key. This is called signing.

Remember that security doesn't just depend on keeping interlopers from reading your communiques. You also have to know that you're not talking to the wrong person. Consider a Man in the middle attack.

Brush up on this stuff on wikipedia.