4 ms·

can't an observer possibly encrypt many possible and likely short messages (like, "hey!" or "lol") with the public keys of some users of value and sniff the net

can't an observer possibly encrypt many possible and likely short messages (like, "hey!" or "lol") with the public keys of some users of value and sniff the network for matches? no. the same message does "never" encrypt to the same cypher: $ echo lol | gpg -e -r F8669BB7 --armor -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) hQEMA2gTLr1USDZGAQf/YbbnzHvNfdqbs6hmdmIaaiZOSfW9P6Bc8tdF4MG/JbP+ RTxbLpi4W+vXs+WrD9jdik8KuDdZV54O1mb6Ido3xrYeEPBo0Vje2eVpgUy01VUa 2RM76NvsX1VN9rap6KvHuO/h7IFwDuAtvUUcDyFH+qK2UEHordFi+mWKqICocQt0 WWgpCk5BVgM/1q2c2ruWxVuZs/IMh9LQGZ1i7hpkJHAYqovhghROmGarUuJYXGDi s6rSMpjxbXDhPMYbbhbBI4pRhgKtN2FMlKyI3XoH+LCFHsOyBmazroVYWFu+gafH 6LU2Z65OQyJWqX5CLdwab4qpUQdht6lqkUHRJB9xdtI/AfTFF7BbRP8PR+q9GVAe r4I812VmBn3hwBHJzNiFDEGVkt/IDpd6M/X2Vi0xJx0LUaICL+swPVudenPuvlnt =zeUd -----END PGP MESSAGE----- $ echo lol | gpg -e -r F8669BB7 --armor -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) hQEMA2gTLr1USDZGAQgAo4ZEHGWKSgwVmbC7crACvTXVtlgP4n8J/3oSohct9zrM SqPd4L5TWsjOh+2LlG7WQbPnpn4Tcv9c4RyPNb+1C/fWRmGhV+a3QhuC+rrus5c6 /FPwsHTjO30N0AnCMzoXAaqDRRGw859BKazEZyxIHherU+o7wNRKrW6U1ikRd/Pu BwHChUZHBRmZhomrtYPbQ5cNAJQtPMj94Z8OuZeCEzPNBr3opevoMs2j+9ysOtkF 7Cam3jTKLM3GwHSm4c7WzhdJJsXbnOn8ODYRBf++4oJChPIqeT2EssigAQuuhHlk pDhM40zB7hAd6MJM52cZpM3UqTe/iI4vHSrQ+pw/otI/AWY6s4aIlF5AAzoM0wAR FzobJ5Vbp7fBgA1SiOhEhSAdT/U2yy2jQcQN53yyX9Vqtunh3dNmCGaNNavszK8+ =YDLc -----END PGP MESSAGE----- $

IanCal 13y ago
As someone who doesn't know the structure of the output, what's the significance of: hQEMA2gTLr1USDZGAQ At the start of each output? Is that 'lol' encrypted then followed by random bytes, or does it contain header information?
- Zash 13y ago
  It's a header with a version number and the ID of the receivers key that the message was encrypted with. Base64-decode and hexdump those messages and look for 54483646 (one of the subkeys of F8669BB7). The encrypted message is after that and would look random. The format is defined in http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880 edit: It's not encrypted with the primary key, but one of the subkeys.
  - IanCal 13y ago
    Interesting, thanks for the overview. I'll have a poke around the doc :) I've been meaning to look into more about how these things work. I understand the very high level stuff and the very low level (how to use the tools roughly and some of the maths behind it all) but not so much in-between.

IanCal 13y ago

As someone who doesn't know the structure of the output, what's the significance of: hQEMA2gTLr1USDZGAQ At the start of each output? Is that 'lol' encrypted then followed by random bytes, or does it contain header information?

Zash 13y ago
It's a header with a version number and the ID of the receivers key that the message was encrypted with. Base64-decode and hexdump those messages and look for 54483646 (one of the subkeys of F8669BB7). The encrypted message is after that and would look random. The format is defined in http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880 edit: It's not encrypted with the primary key, but one of the subkeys.
- IanCal 13y ago
  Interesting, thanks for the overview. I'll have a poke around the doc :) I've been meaning to look into more about how these things work. I understand the very high level stuff and the very low level (how to use the tools roughly and some of the maths behind it all) but not so much in-between.