[Bug 1677903] [NEW] unable to send encrypted message with state-of-the-art OpenPGP keys

[m.eik michalke]

Public bug reported:

with the gnupg2 version 2.1.11-6ubuntu2 shipped with ubuntu 16.04 it is
impossible to send an encrypted email to people using up-to-date ECC
algorithms in their OpenPGP key. newer encryption algorithms *should* be
omitted by older gnupg2 versions in favor of supported alternatives, but
in fact they are not. this might be caused by the accompanying version
of libgcrypt20 assuming it can support the algorithm, but then the too
old gnupg2 version cannot. in the end, all you get is a very meaningless
error that "an error occurred".

to reproduce the problem, install ubuntu xenial and try to send an
encrypted message to the very author of GnuPG (OpenPGP key ID
0xF2AD85AC1E42B367). good luck with that.

please upgrade gnupg2 to a more recent version.

** Affects: gnupg2 (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1677903

Title:
  unable to send encrypted message with state-of-the-art OpenPGP keys

Status in gnupg2 package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  with the gnupg2 version 2.1.11-6ubuntu2 shipped with ubuntu 16.04 it
  is impossible to send an encrypted email to people using up-to-date
  ECC algorithms in their OpenPGP key. newer encryption algorithms
  *should* be omitted by older gnupg2 versions in favor of supported
  alternatives, but in fact they are not. this might be caused by the
  accompanying version of libgcrypt20 assuming it can support the
  algorithm, but then the too old gnupg2 version cannot. in the end, all
  you get is a very meaningless error that "an error occurred".

  to reproduce the problem, install ubuntu xenial and try to send an
  encrypted message to the very author of GnuPG (OpenPGP key ID
  0xF2AD85AC1E42B367). good luck with that.

  please upgrade gnupg2 to a more recent version.

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