Enigmail choose wrong signing key
OpenPGP addon for Mozilla Thunderbird
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Environment:
Enigmail version 1.5.2 (20130703-1322) on OSX 10.8.5
gpg (GnuPG/MacGPG2) 2.0.20 with libgcrypt 1.5.0
Setup:
Keychain contains two private/public key pairs.
Configuration:
Both GPGPreferences and ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf show a default key defined
Problem:
When signing a mail, Enigmail uses the first created key for signing, rather than using the default defined in gpg.conf
Question:
How can I tell it to use the proper key for signing?
You should make sure that the correct key is specified under Tools > Account Settings > OpenPGP Security. Do NOT specify an email address.
Thanks. This did the trick.
I have a similar problem.
As I'm very new to PGP, I'm not entirely sure which key is used to encrypt and which to decrypt.
At present my settings (as listed in T'Bird A/C settings) show that it is using my primary key.
I tried sending a test email to a friend who said that I should be encrypting with key XXXXX... - which is my subkey. But I can only select my primary key on the settings menu.
Or am I mis-understanding the whole thing here?
You can only choose the primary key for signing. However, GnuPG will then pick the correct signing subkey automatically. You cannot specify a subkey because for encryption you will need two subkeys - one for signing and one for encryption.
Thanks Patrick for your reply.
I am still struggling to understand primary keys and subkeys. Other times there is reference to public keys and private keys - are these the same thing by a different name?
I've googled PGP videos to try and understand at a basic level about all these keys, but have had no luck discovering what's what on the key front.
Would anyone have a link to a Dummmies-type-guide to this whole key business?
You have two (linked) keys: your public key and your private key. These are two separate keys that belong together similarly to a pair of shoes.
Each of the keys has one or more subkeys that define what the key is able to do. The key itself has some data, but does not contain parts that allow the key to be used for encryption/decryption/signing. Thus, the sum of all subkeys together form the key.