[PLUG] test

AthlonRob AthlonRob at axpr.net
Mon Nov 3 10:52:02 UTC 2003


On Mon, 2003-11-03 at 10:17, Russ Johnson wrote:
> * Russ Johnson <russj at dimstar.net> [2003-11-02 18:21]:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> > 
> > Should be pgp-signed. 
> > 
> > Now... where to upload my key... 
> 
> OK, now is this one signed properly? 
> 
> I think I have it working in both kmail and mutt. 

Yes.

It's worth mentioning, I think, that the two emails were signed very
differently.  The one you quote was signed plainly.  The signature
itself was part of the text of the message.  The one I quote was signed
using PGP/MIME, so the signature is a separate MIME part.

There are, unfortunately, many broken MIME-capable mail clients that
simply are unable to decipher PGP/MIME.  When a PGP/MIME message comes
through, they see a blank message with two attachments; one the body of
the message itself, and the other the PGP signature of the message.

OE is likely the most popular of those broken mail clients.

However, Evolution takes a different stance, quite opposite from
Microsoft's OE in this respect.  PGP/MIME messages are *very* easily
verifiable.  I only have to click on a lock at the bottom of the message
to receive the signature information.  If the message is signed
plaintext, however, I have to save the message and verify the saved
message.  Copying and pasting seems to take out the linebreaks.

IIRC, KMail is smarter than Evolution here.  KMail, I believe, is able
to easily (and automagically) verify the integrity of an email no matter
how it is signed.  I guess KMail signs in plaintext, too, as I know mutt
signs using PGP/MIME because some folks who use mutt as a news client
tried to sign their usenet posts but were unable to get it to work
plaintext without just using a pipe to gpg.

I stopped signing messages to PLUG several months ago simply because the
only way Evolution (my favorite mail client currently) is able to sign
posts automatically is using PGP/MIME, and there *are* folks on this
list who use OE and the like who can't easily read PGP/MIME signed
messages.

I see in the last few months, though, that PGP/MIME on the list seems to
be more popular than it was a year ago, so I may just end up signing
posts again...

Rob





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