I have a problem with the step of selecting which public key to use for encrypting an e-mail I wish to send. The title bar of the window is "OpenPGP Key Selection", to get to this window I write an e-mail, check "encrypt message", click send, this opens up a window with the title "OpenPGP - Recipient Settings", I click the pushbutton "Select Key(s)..." and then I get to the "OpenPGP Key Selection" window. In this window I have a "Refresh Key List" and "Download missing keys" pushbuttons. I am able to download the key I need for the e-mail address I wish to send an e-mail to, however here comes the problem:
After the key is downloaded, it appears on a line where Account/User ID, Trust, Expiry and Key ID are specified. The checkbox to the left, which I assume I'm supposed to check before I click OK is red in color. It cannot be checked, hence when I click OK I get the message that no key has been selected. However there is no error, warning or information regarding why it is red.
The key is not expired (the expiry date is at the end of the year). The trust is just a "-", I assume that means no trust, that no one has signed the key.
How can I use this key? What do I need to do? I tried to download the key myself from the keyserver to a file, but I couldn't find any way to add the key from a file on disk. I tried to use the "Key Management" from the OpenPGP menu selection and set the trust level there, however it doesn't seem to matter what trust level I set it, I still cannot add the key when I want to actually send an e-mail to this person. Finally I've searched around for problems with adding keys but I couldn't find anything. I have tried to run Thunderbird by starting it from console to see if I can see any verbose messages printed to console to indicate what the problem is, but I got nothing.
I should also add that after the key has been added, if I try to search again for a key again, it searches forever without ever terminating with success or failure. This happens regardless of what (valid) keyserver I choose.
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That's a lot of stuff, and I'd like to sort it out. First of all: "Trust" is something different than "Key validity".
Trust means that you trust signatures made by that specific key under other keys.
Key validity is what you need. You need to verify that this key belongs to the mail address and person you are trying to write to. There are several methods to achieve this. Please read the guides and how-tos on this subject, such as the Enigmail handbook (http://www.enigmail.net/documentation/handbook.php).
However, you can bypass this verification process if you know what you're doing. On OpenPGP preferences click on "Display Expert Settings" select "Sending" tab and check the box at "Always trust peoples keys".
Then, enigmail will not print on the command line console. It will store all messages for debugging internally. This is accessible via OpenPGP -> Debugging Options -> "View logfile". If you have selected a log directory in the preferences -> Debugging tab, then these messages are written to files, too.
Please report back, if that does not cover all your needs.
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However, I got the error "Error in OpenPGP; Encryption/signing failed; send unencrypted message?", then when I added my own public/private key pair, it worked.
Thank you for the help.
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Another small issue, how can I read my own encrypted sent e-mail? Obviously I could either decrypt it using the private key of the person I sent it too, which again I obviously don't have, however doesn't Enigmail have some feature to allow the user to read what the user himself has written? Does it only store the encrypted ciphertext?
Edit: I am prompted with "Please type in your OpenPGP passphrase or your SmartCard PIN", however typing my passphrase doesn't seem to work, although it works when I send an e-mail.
Last edit: deltavoid 2013-05-27
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If you want to be able to read your sent messages, then you should check "Add my own key to the recipients list" on the sending tab in OpenPGP-Preferences.
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Hi,
I have a problem with the step of selecting which public key to use for encrypting an e-mail I wish to send. The title bar of the window is "OpenPGP Key Selection", to get to this window I write an e-mail, check "encrypt message", click send, this opens up a window with the title "OpenPGP - Recipient Settings", I click the pushbutton "Select Key(s)..." and then I get to the "OpenPGP Key Selection" window. In this window I have a "Refresh Key List" and "Download missing keys" pushbuttons. I am able to download the key I need for the e-mail address I wish to send an e-mail to, however here comes the problem:
After the key is downloaded, it appears on a line where Account/User ID, Trust, Expiry and Key ID are specified. The checkbox to the left, which I assume I'm supposed to check before I click OK is red in color. It cannot be checked, hence when I click OK I get the message that no key has been selected. However there is no error, warning or information regarding why it is red.
The key is not expired (the expiry date is at the end of the year). The trust is just a "-", I assume that means no trust, that no one has signed the key.
How can I use this key? What do I need to do? I tried to download the key myself from the keyserver to a file, but I couldn't find any way to add the key from a file on disk. I tried to use the "Key Management" from the OpenPGP menu selection and set the trust level there, however it doesn't seem to matter what trust level I set it, I still cannot add the key when I want to actually send an e-mail to this person. Finally I've searched around for problems with adding keys but I couldn't find anything. I have tried to run Thunderbird by starting it from console to see if I can see any verbose messages printed to console to indicate what the problem is, but I got nothing.
I should also add that after the key has been added, if I try to search again for a key again, it searches forever without ever terminating with success or failure. This happens regardless of what (valid) keyserver I choose.
That's a lot of stuff, and I'd like to sort it out. First of all: "Trust" is something different than "Key validity".
Trust means that you trust signatures made by that specific key under other keys.
Key validity is what you need. You need to verify that this key belongs to the mail address and person you are trying to write to. There are several methods to achieve this. Please read the guides and how-tos on this subject, such as the Enigmail handbook (http://www.enigmail.net/documentation/handbook.php).
However, you can bypass this verification process if you know what you're doing. On OpenPGP preferences click on "Display Expert Settings" select "Sending" tab and check the box at "Always trust peoples keys".
Then, enigmail will not print on the command line console. It will store all messages for debugging internally. This is accessible via OpenPGP -> Debugging Options -> "View logfile". If you have selected a log directory in the preferences -> Debugging tab, then these messages are written to files, too.
Please report back, if that does not cover all your needs.
Aha! This allowed me to add the key.
However, I got the error "Error in OpenPGP; Encryption/signing failed; send unencrypted message?", then when I added my own public/private key pair, it worked.
Thank you for the help.
Another small issue, how can I read my own encrypted sent e-mail? Obviously I could either decrypt it using the private key of the person I sent it too, which again I obviously don't have, however doesn't Enigmail have some feature to allow the user to read what the user himself has written? Does it only store the encrypted ciphertext?
Edit: I am prompted with "Please type in your OpenPGP passphrase or your SmartCard PIN", however typing my passphrase doesn't seem to work, although it works when I send an e-mail.
Last edit: deltavoid 2013-05-27
If you want to be able to read your sent messages, then you should check "Add my own key to the recipients list" on the sending tab in OpenPGP-Preferences.