Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: besaid420 on June 14, 2012, 03:45 am

Title: New User questions
Post by: besaid420 on June 14, 2012, 03:45 am
Hi i'm new to SR and i'm having a little trouble understanding the whole PGP thing. I understand how to encrypt/decrypt my own messages, but i'm just not sure how to get someone elses public key/encrypt with the other party's public key. Any help would be much appreciated =D
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: besaid420 on June 14, 2012, 04:14 am
To clarify, i know that i need to go to the vendor's page, find the key there, copy it to a plaintext document, go to GPA and import the file to the keyring. The problem i'm having is actually getting the key off their page. All i see is where it says Begin PGP Public Key Block, a bunch of gibberish, and end PGP Public Key Block, which to my knowledge means they encrypted a message. How do i get their public key if what they've encrypted can only be opened with their private key, which no one else has??
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: NeutronMan on June 14, 2012, 12:17 pm
Hi i'm new to SR and i'm having a little trouble understanding the whole PGP thing. I understand how to encrypt/decrypt my own messages, but i'm just not sure how to get someone elses public key/encrypt with the other party's public key. Any help would be much appreciated =D
Search for bridges and all the threads will appear, then just read.

NM
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: mooshroom on June 14, 2012, 03:43 pm
Begin PGP Public Key Block, a bunch of gibberish, and end PGP Public Key Block

Well that is what its says: the vendors public key block, not an encrypted message.
Tried to import it?
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: Banjo on June 14, 2012, 04:29 pm
That is what you need to copy. Copy/paste the whole block into notepad, and save it. Using GPA, choose to import a key. Select the file you just saved, and it should successfully import. Next, open the clipboard utility, and type your message, and click the encrypt icon. You will be presented with a list of keys to use. Choose the one you just imported, and you'll be good to go.

If you'd like to test it out, try it with my key:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (MingW32)
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=Y6fk
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Encrypt a message for me, and I'll tell you if I was able to decrypt it or not.
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: frank-butcher24 on June 14, 2012, 07:37 pm
Banjo is correct, but in many versions of the software it is even easier than saving the key to notepad.

You can just select the public key block, copy it (ctrl-c), then flip to your PGP application, right-click in the window and you'll see the option to import a key. It will import the key you copied.

That person's key will then be available to you next time you encrypt a message.

Personally, I like to delete drug dealers' keys from my PGP application after each time I have sent them a message. It would be pretty incriminating if someone found your PGP application and you had a bunch of Silk Road drug dealers' public keys saved in it!

So basically, I import their key, then I encrypt a message and send it to them through Silk Road, then I delete their key from my PGP. If I need to communicate with them again in the future, well it's easy enough to re-import their key each time.
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: NeutronMan on June 14, 2012, 08:20 pm
Hi i'm new to SR and i'm having a little trouble understanding the whole PGP thing. I understand how to encrypt/decrypt my own messages, but i'm just not sure how to get someone elses public key/encrypt with the other party's public key. Any help would be much appreciated =D
I'm sorry man, I really fucked up with my response, I was probly thinking of somebody else who asked about bridges. My apologies.

NM
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: besaid420 on June 14, 2012, 10:26 pm
Thank you SOO much everyone, especially banjo =D. I've figured out how to send encrypted messages using someone elses key, however now i seem to be running into a problem where i can't find what my public key is so someone ELSE can send me an encrypted message. Thank you in advance for any help, it is very, very appreciated.
Title: Re: New User questions
Post by: NeutronMan on June 14, 2012, 10:34 pm
Thank you SOO much everyone, especially banjo =D. I've figured out how to send encrypted messages using someone elses key, however now i seem to be running into a problem where i can't find what my public key is so someone ELSE can send me an encrypted message. Thank you in advance for any help, it is very, very appreciated.
Your public key is found this way: open your PGP program and highlight your key by name. Then copy to the clipboard, and paste it in notepad or something, even in a post here. It will start with : Begin PGP Public Key or some such wording.

NM