Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: sumyun1 on October 08, 2012, 07:25 am

Title: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: sumyun1 on October 08, 2012, 07:25 am
I am trying to learn PGP and have been following the instructions suggested to me and I seem to be doing everything right.
I can generate my own public key in text edit, I can type a message in text edit and encrypt it.
My PROBLEM is that when I receive a encrypted message I cannot decrypt it in text edit. When I hit the command to decrypt the message I get a error message that says "The "OpenPGP: Decrypt" service could not be used because the "GPGservices" appliceation did not respond to a request for services" and then right below it on the same error message it reads: "Try reopening "GPGServices," or contact the vendor for an updated version"
I have updated everything and can't seem to figure it out for the life of me.

Can anybody help me out???
Title: Re: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: holdinbanks on December 03, 2012, 07:07 pm
Wow, same problem, I just want to decrypt a message. No one helping so far.yv
Title: Re: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: goblin on December 03, 2012, 07:40 pm
You sure they sent you their public key? If they didn't the program will attempt to find it at the key servers but most of the time this does not work.

It has something to do with the kind of public key they have, I believe that this can have some kind of corruption (guess i'm no expert, huh?), because sometimes people will write me without sending me their key and I can decrypt with no problems.
Title: Re: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: wicked420 on December 03, 2012, 07:56 pm
Sounds like you need to restart your machine or restart the GPG application you installed on your machine......

You can look at some guides for installation/encryption/decryption here: http://p3lr4cdm3pv4plyj.onion/

and then test your configuration here: http://p3lr4cdm3pv4plyj.onion/test.php


On the test page: 
If you enter in your public key on the left hand page, then TorID will encrypt a message to your key for you to decrypt. 
If you add the key listed on the right hand side, and then encrypt a message to TorID and paste it in the box on the left, TorID will decrypt that message and show you the contents.

If both of these works out for you okay, then you're all set!
Title: Re: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: goblin on December 03, 2012, 10:48 pm

Guru
Guru, can you stand a question from a non-expert? I am a vendor and I always use PGP for my customer's personal information; in fact, if they don't use PGP I cancel the order. But I have to confess I don't delve into the ins and outs of encription to the same level that you do. I don't understand more than a few words that you wrote about it (of course I don't use mac so maybe that's why).

But do I understand that you have to download a "build" every day in order for this to work well?

Also, how is it that a person can send me a message without sending me his public key, and most of the time I can decrypt, but a few times I cannot? Hope this isn't too much to ask of you, I know you're busy but I also know you're a standup guy willing always to help others.

Thanks a lot.

goblin
Title: Re: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: Dopamin on December 04, 2012, 12:07 am
thx for the input, guru. profiled for further reading/reposting.
Title: Re: Can any one out there on the SR help me with a decryption problem???
Post by: goblin on December 04, 2012, 01:44 am

The nightly builds are just that, builds of the software that are updated nightly.  The reason I recommend these is that  they frequently incorporate bug-fixes or work-arounds that are not incorporated in that the standard build.  The idea is that if the standard build doesn't work as expected, it is a good idea to download the nightly build and see if that fixes the issues that you're having.  All the nightly build means is that the software is updated frequently -- the nightly builds can fix bugs, but they can also introduce others.  Basically, if you download a nightly build, and it works for you, you keep using it -- there is no requirement to update the software nightly.


The most common cause of messages failing to decrypt are:

* If the message is not copied and pasted properly.  All 5 dashes have to be present in the -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- and -----END PGP MESSAGE----- 
If even one of the dashes is misisng, you will likely get an error message.

* Use of the wrong key -- many new customers are often unfamiliar with how PGP/GPG works, thus they sometimes encrypt to the wrong PGP key.  If, for example, they encrypt a message to you, using only to their own PGP key, you will not be able to decrypt it.

I would say those are the two most common causes for failure to decrypt.

Guru

 
Thanks!