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PGP inline encrypted messages mostly not decrypting

#2198

Hi,

I am recently receiving inline encrypted PGP messages. Most do not decrypt – actually the only one MailMate recognized was one with an (PGP encrypted) ZIP attachment (there it decoded the message, but not the attachment). I copy in the content types and MIME boundaries (Please note that I have randomly replaced the filename of the attachment and a part of the MIME boundary by other characters as they could be considered confidential).

Honestly, I am not sure whether the mails are compliant with standards but at first glance it seems ok to me (except that it does not make sense to add a footer after the PGP part of an text/plain part in my view).

The mails are sent from a corporate environment.

---- HEADER SNIP, TOP LINES AND MIME BOUNDARIES OF MESSAGE NOT DECRYPTING: Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="_000_96DF90A3A7D4404E959896CE551253A063441689SVNRZEX02abacal_"

--_000_96DF90A3A7D4404E959896CE551253A063441689SVNRZEX02abacal_ Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
[...] --_000_96DF90A3A7D4404E959896CE551253A063441689SVNRZEX02abacal_--

---- HEADER SNIP, TOP LINES AND MIME BOUNDARIES OF MESSAGE THE TEXT OF WHICH IS DECRYPTED (text, but not attachment):

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="_004_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_"

--_004_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_ Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="_000_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_"

--_000_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)
[...] -----END PGP MESSAGE----- [...some footer introduced by server...]

--_000_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_ X-Content-PGP-Universal-Saved-Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"; name="PGPexch.htm.pgp"
Content-Disposition: attachment
X-PGP-MIME-Structure: alternative
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)

[...] -----END PGP MESSAGE----- --_000_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_-- --_004_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_ Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Some Files.zip.pgp"
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux)

[...] -----END PGP MESSAGE----- --_004_2466D76C696EA24183AE137DBCDEB7513009230ESVHV1EX01abacal_--

Reported by Baltasar Cevc · December 5th, 2018 @ 11:15 AM

State: new
Milestone: none
Assigned to: benny benny

Activity

  1. benny
    benny

    It'll be easier for me to debug if you can send me an example using “Message ▸ Forward as Attachment”. You can of course edit it to the extent that it still exemplifies the problem.

    At least in theory, MailMate should handle old-style inline encrypted content, but it seems that something else is done in your example. It seems attachments have been encrypted using OpenPGP. This is actually new to me, that is, I have not received examples of this before.

    December 11th, 2018 @ 02:13 PM

  2. Baltasar Cevc
    Baltasar Cevc

    Hi benny,

    sorry for the non-response here. I was unable to produce an example as the mails were from a client (and therefore subject to mandate confidentiality). By now, I have figured out that a user with Mailvelope (PGP in Browser) using Gmail procudes the same issue.

    I have a screenshot and can share the message with you (although it would be good not to share the other user's email address publicly but only with you).

    I cannot upload the screenshot - the tracker displays "Upload Quota Reached. Please notify the account owner.".

    Best,
    Baltasar

    July 16th, 2020 @ 09:11 AM

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