Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: MKultra on July 11, 2013, 08:14 pm

Title: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: MKultra on July 11, 2013, 08:14 pm
Having a problem getting some public keys to save in my keychain. It works fine on vendors public keys that are long in length, but I have problems with the ones that are short. I don't know what the difference is between the two.

Is there anyone who knows why this is happening and can explain how to fix it? Thank you.
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: Rastaman Vibration on July 12, 2013, 01:39 am
The problem is with the Mac implementation of GPG tools. Its always a good idea to download the latest build from their site.

Also, have you tried importing the vendor's key? That is, copy the key and save it to a text file and then go into you GPG keychain or whatever its called and select a menu option to imprt.

Hope this helps!
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: cirrus on July 12, 2013, 01:43 am
The problem is with the Mac implementation of GPG tools. Its always a good idea to download the latest build from their site.

Also, have you tried importing the vendor's key? That is, copy the key and save it to a text file and then go into you GPG keychain or whatever its called and select a menu option to imprt.

Hope this helps!

Great advice, Rastaman Vibration!  Those would be my first two suggestions as well.  Get the nightly build, and if that still doesn't work, save the key to a text file and import.
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: MKultra on July 12, 2013, 01:54 am
The problem is with the Mac implementation of GPG tools. Its always a good idea to download the latest build from their site.

Also, have you tried importing the vendor's key? That is, copy the key and save it to a text file and then go into you GPG keychain or whatever its called and select a menu option to imprt.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Rastaman. I'll grab their latest build and see if that helps.

99% of keys import and save to the keychain without issue. I've only encountered this with two or three venders key's (they all were short in length). These venders also mentioned other Mac users having issues too. I usually am able to copy paste the key into textedit and import from there. The keys I've had problems with act like they have been imported and saved to the keychain (the box with their information comes up as if it has anyway), but when I try to encrypt a message to the person their name is not in my keychain.
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: Rastaman Vibration on July 12, 2013, 02:09 am
Yes, I had the exact same problem back when I used my Mac for SR. Downloading the nightly build fixed it for me. Since then, I've switched to Tails and its been smooth sailing ever since. Still love my Mac tho, its just not the best tool for cruising the Road.

Keep us posted on how it goes :)
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: MKultra on July 12, 2013, 03:01 am
Yes, I had the exact same problem back when I used my Mac for SR. Downloading the nightly build fixed it for me. Since then, I've switched to Tails and its been smooth sailing ever since. Still love my Mac tho, its just not the best tool for cruising the Road.

Keep us posted on how it goes :)

Yeah, I agree. Macs are good for somethings and not others. I've been meaning to set up a drive with tails to use on an older laptop. This may be the motivation I need to finally do it. Thanks again.
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: Rastaman Vibration on July 12, 2013, 05:56 am
 ;D
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on July 12, 2013, 09:44 am
I had this issue and nearly tore my hair out trying to find a solution then someone on here gave it to me.

Save the PGP public key as a text file in whatever program you use with your GPG, I use TextEdit then open your key chain and add the public key manually by selecting the text file and voila it works and it listed in your key chain.
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: astor on July 12, 2013, 03:20 pm
I had this issue and nearly tore my hair out trying to find a solution then someone on here gave it to me.

Save the PGP public key as a text file in whatever program you use with your GPG, I use TextEdit then open your key chain and add the public key manually by selecting the text file and voila it works and it listed in your key chain.

Sounds like a character encoding issue. By saving it in a text file, the text editor saves it with the correct character encoding for Macs.
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: MKultra on July 12, 2013, 04:52 pm
Thanks samesamebutdifferent and Astor. That makes a lot of sense. I tried it on one of the key's in question and it seems to have worked.  :D
Title: Re: Some Public Keys Won't Save? Mac (gpg tools)
Post by: samesamebutdifferent on July 13, 2013, 12:49 am
Thanks samesamebutdifferent and Astor. That makes a lot of sense. I tried it on one of the key's in question and it seems to have worked.  :D

Nice one  ;D