gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID

gaius.petronius

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Feb 6, 2002, 10:18:01 PM2/6/02

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How do i force 3DES cipher please?

Nick Andriash

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Feb 7, 2002, 12:58:17 AM2/7/02

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Hello gaius.petronius,

On Wednesday, February 06 2002 at 07:18 PM PDT, you wrote:

> gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID
>
> How do i force 3DES cipher please?

cipher-algo-3DES

--
Nick Andriash
Courtenay, B.C Canada

gaius.petronius

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Feb 7, 2002, 4:30:30 AM2/7/02

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Nick Andriash <andr...@gmx.net> wrote in message news:<20020206215638...@gmx.net>...

> Hello gaius.petronius,
>
> On Wednesday, February 06 2002 at 07:18 PM PDT, you wrote:
>
> > gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID
> >
> > How do i force 3DES cipher please?
>
> cipher-algo-3DES

# cat /root/.gnupg/options
cipher-algo-3DES

gpg --encypt file

gpg: /root/.gnupg/options:1: invalid option

Jeremy Bishop

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Feb 7, 2002, 5:01:14 AM2/7/02

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gaius.petronius spake thus:

> # cat /root/.gnupg/options
> cipher-algo-3DES
>
> gpg --encypt file
>
> gpg: /root/.gnupg/options:1: invalid option

Try 'cipher-algo 3DES'

If on command line, try as 'gpg --cipher algo 3DES --encrypt....'

--
Prof: So the American government went to IBM to come up with a data
encryption standard and they came up with ...
Student: EBCDIC!"

Nick Andriash

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Feb 7, 2002, 1:09:13 PM2/7/02

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Hello Jeremy Bishop,

On Thursday, February 07 2002 at 02:01 AM PDT, you wrote:

> Try 'cipher-algo 3DES'

Yes... Sorry about the extra dash I put in.

gaius.petronius

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Feb 7, 2002, 9:59:19 PM2/7/02

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Nick Andriash <andr...@gmx.net> wrote in message news:<20020207100839...@gmx.net>...

> Hello Jeremy Bishop,
>
> On Thursday, February 07 2002 at 02:01 AM PDT, you wrote:
>
> > Try 'cipher-algo 3DES'

cat ~/.gnupg/options
cipher-algo 3DES

gpg --encrypt j.txt
You did not specify a user ID. (you may use "-r")

Enter the user ID: rut

[successful encryption]

]# gpg --decrypt j.txt.gpg >j.txt.gpg.decrypted
...
gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit ELG-E key, ID 18A9EAB3, created
2002-02-05

So apparently putting this option in the options file didn't work.
Is there something else i need to do in order to force 3DES encryption
on these files?

Kapil Bhalla

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Feb 8, 2002, 12:08:33 AM2/8/02

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$ gpg -c j.txt
$ gpg -dv j.txt.gpg
.....
gpg: 3DES encrypted data

shows that the data was encrypted using 3des.

--
Kapil Bhalla

gaius.petronius

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Feb 8, 2002, 4:48:28 AM2/8/02

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Kapil Bhalla <bhall...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<slrna66qoa.4q...@leodatanet.com>...

>
> $ gpg -c j.txt
> $ gpg -dv j.txt.gpg
> .....
> gpg: 3DES encrypted data
>
> shows that the data was encrypted using 3des.

Thanks for pointing that out. In light of this,

Original filesize

22 j.txt

The filesize after encryption using the command 'gpg -e'

586 j.txt.gpg

The filesize after using 'gpg -c'
72 j.txt.gpg

Yes i do see now that the '-c' switch (cipher only?) enforces 3DES (or
is it reading the contents of the options file?)

# gpg -dv j.txt.gpg

gpg: 3DES encrypted data
gpg: original file name='j.txt'

But the fact that 'gpg -c' prompts me twice for a password whereas
'gpg -e' doesn't prompt me for a password at all leads me to think
that gpg isn't reading any keyrings when using the '-c' switch. Is it
even reading the './.gnupg/options' file? Or is 3DES simply the
default cipher?

Also i am wondering whether it is that the large filesize of the first
encrypted file (with the '-e' switch) doesn't indicate that both 3DES
*and* ElGamal are being implemented in the encryption. (Or is it DSA
or IDEA or what? why such a large file?)

perhaps i should ask, why was the filesize 8 times larger for the
default of the '-e' switch?