[Evolution-users] Encryption problem - need help

[Volker Wysk]

Am Mittwoch, dem 01.10.2025 um 08:40 -0400 schrieb janos:
> Thanks. I don't use encryption (have no big secrets), I was just
> playing with it for "what the heck!".
> 
> As far as I understand pgp encryption works by
> 1) Sender has a secret and a public key
> 2) Sender encrypts the message with its own private key and the
> Recipient's public key

No, just with recipient's public key. Otherwise, the recipicient would need
the sender's secret key to read it. He can *sign* the message with his
secret key.

>From what you've written, it follows that Evolution encrypts the mail, which
it sends encrypted to someone, on your own local machine (with what must be
your own secret key). That's why this key is needed for opening the mail on
the origin system. - @Anyone: Is this correct?

> 3) Sender sends its public key to the recipient (or the recipient can
> fetch the sender's public key from a public key-server).

That's the weak point. You need to trust the source of the recipicient's
secret key. There could be a man-in-the-middle-attack. It's best to receive
the recipicient's public key from him in person. Or you have a certificate,
from someone both (sender and receiver) trust.

> 4) Sender sends encrypted message.
> 5) Recipient can read (decrypt) received message because recipient has
> its own private key corresponding to its public key.
> 
> In this case I checked Options PGP Sign and PGP Encrypt before I sent
> the message.
> 
> Sending message worked, because I (the sender) had my own private key 
> and the public key of the recipient (point 2 above).
> The receiving end worked, i.e. the recipient could read the encrypted
> message (point 5 above.
> 
> As I stated initally both sender and recipient uses Evolution.
> How come Evolution could not display the message I sent?

Because the message is encrypted with a public key whose private part isn't
available. If I'm correct at point no. 2, this means that your private key
is missing on the sender's machine.

Cheers,
Volker

> 
> Could this be a pgp peculiarity?
> 
> Janos - (definitely not an encryption specialist)
> 
> On Wed, 2025-10-01 at 13:47 +0200, Volker Wysk wrote:
> > Hi
> > 
> > I'm not using mail encryption (yet), so I can't tell you how to
> > configure it
> > in Evolution. But the message says that your secret key isn't found
> > in the
> > sending machine. It *is* found in the receiving machine. You need to
> > copy
> > your secret key to the sending machine. And, possibly, do some Evo
> > configuration.
> > 
> > Home this helps,
> > V.W.
> > 
> > Am Mittwoch, dem 01.10.2025 um 07:33 -0400 schrieb janos via
> > evolution-
> > users:
> > > Could not parse PGP/MIME message: Failed to decrypt MIME part:
> > > Secret
> > > key not found
> > 
> > > On Wed, 2025-10-01 at 13:18 +0200, Volker Wysk wrote:
> > > > Hi.
> > > > 
> > > > The picture you sent is way to small. The text isn't readable.
> > > > 
> > > > Regards,
> > > > V.W.
> > > > 
> > > > Am Mittwoch, dem 01.10.2025 um 07:09 -0400 schrieb janos via
> > > > evolution-users:
> > > > > Hi, this may be a trivial question.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I sent a signed, encrypted message to myself on another
> > > > > account,
> > > > > different mail server (email provider). The message was
> > > > > received, I
> > > > > could open it, and the email client (Evolution as well, of
> > > > > course)
> > > > > showed everything OK.
> > > > > 
> > > > > But, I could not view the sent message in the Evolution "Sent"
> > > > > folder:
> > > > > 
> > > > > The sending Evolution and the receiving Evolution was on
> > > > > different
> > > > > machines.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I do not understand the "Could not parse ..." part, and the
> > > > > "...
> > > > > decrypt MIME" part
> > > > > 
> > > > > What am I doing wrong? What do I have todo to correct this
> > > > > situation? - thank you for the help and suggestion.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Janos
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > sent from andraslinux machine
> > > https://jgklinux.jangkom.com/
> > >