[Enigmail] Problem decrypting messages

David Caplan suspect at thotwerx.com
Mon Feb 16 13:05:43 PST 2009


Hi there,

I'm a newbie with OpenPGP, and I'm hoping Enigmail can help me secure my
correspondence while minimizing my opportunities to screw up the
encryption/decryption process.

I've installed OpenPGP 1.4.9 and Enignmail 0.95.7 on my PC that runs
Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 on Windows XP SP3.

Installation seemed to go well, I created a passphrase and key pair, and
I published my public key to the default servers.

To verify that all was well, I sent an encrypted email message to the
automated Adele server in Germany (adele at gnupp.de) with my public key as
the text.  It replied with a message that, once I typed in my passphrase
to view it, contained my public key as the text.  So far so good.

However, Thunderbird also displays a message at the top of the received
email stating:

"OpenPGP: Part of the message encrypted; click Key icon for details."

When I click the Key icon, the following error message pops up:

"OpenPGP Security Info

Error - secret key needed to decrypt message

gpg command line and output:
C:\\Program Files\\GnuPG\\gpg.exe --charset utf8 --batch --no-tty
--status-fd 2 -d --passphrase-fd 0 --no-use-agent
gpg: encrypted with RSA key, ID 2BFD503F
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available"

I've spent hours trying to determine what I'm doing wrong, but to no
avail so far.  Can anyone please help me out?

David


More information about the Enigmail mailing list