Hi,

I'm trying to follow up on my PR about pgp5 not working properly (pkg/18144).
The good news is I think my problem is solved. The bad news is, there may be
some lingering issues.... Maybe someone can help shed some light....

With NetBSD 1.6F I had observed that after compiling and installing pgp5
from pkgsrc, I was no longer able to sign/encrypt messages because pgp5 was
now giving me a "Bad pass phrase." error message. Uninstalling pgp5 and
installing the precompiled version of pgp5 from NetBSD 1.5 fixed the problem
and I could sign/encrypt again.

Now, I was not the only one that had observed this problem. I had received
an email from Feico Dillema saying that the problem had been observed also
on NetBSD 1.6_RC2.

Frustrated with perceived problems with pgp5 on NetBSD I gave up and resorted
to PLAINTEXT encryption for quite a while. I have recently gone back and
re-created my tests and now I'm seeing the opposite of my original
problem -- compiling and installing pgp5 on NetBSD-current  (sources from
11/29/2003) allows me to sign/encrypt without problem. However, if I
uninstall pgp5 and installed the precompiled version of pgp5 from NetBSD
1.6.1, the precompiled version will not let me sign/encrypt, again giving
me the "Bad pass phrase." error message.

I'm aware that numerous changes have been made to the crypto code in NetBSD
during the past year and as such, it is hard for me to put my finger on
what exactly caused the problem with pgp5 compiled on NetBSD 1.6.x. The fact
that I can now use pgp5 on NetBSD-current is a good thing, but now I'm
wondering if any key-pairs generated on a NetBSD 1.6.x system will have
problems when used on a system running NetBSD-current.

I don't have a NetBSD 1.6.1 system to test with, but if some has that, and
has a -current system, it would be an interesting test to see if any of
the key-pairs generated on the 1.6.1 system are processed correctly when
placed on a NetBSD-current system.

Please respond to the list... Due to the high volume of spam I have been
receiving, I have enabled my ISP's spam filter for this account and that
could unintentionally block your message to me (especially if your email
address is a non-USA address).


Brian Stark
bpstark at pacbell dot net