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submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/techsupport@lemmy.world

I encrypted a message by:

  1. Typing gpg --encrypt --armor --recipient [recipient]
  2. Hitting enter
  3. Typing the message to be encrypted
  4. Exiting/finishing with "ctrl + d"

However, I needed to press "ctrl + d" twice, for some reason. Maybe a Termux bug? Although I haven't tried it on a normal Linux distro, so maybe this is normal?

Question: if it isn't normal, did gpg encode/include the first "ctrld" in the encrypted message? If it did, I need to contact the recipient to tell them to disregard the message... 🤣

Naturally, I cannot reverse the message since it's encrypted with the recipient's public key.

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[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

You need two if the message doesn't end with a newline AFAIK. This is the case for several tools that operate on stdin, but I'm unsure if it is a program thing or a bash thing.

Sidenote, you can add yourself as a recipient too to be able to decrypt messages you send. I don't think it violates any principles or etiquette, and you can/should use --throw-keyids anyway

[-] akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 weeks ago

Thanks! I (kind of) came to the same conclusion after finding and reading this.

[-] akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

Sorry for spamming. I just tried encrypting it with my own credentials as recipient. Worked like a charm. Thank you so much! :D

By the way, is --throw-keyidsa countermeasure against man in the middle attacks? Does it assume that the recipient's private key has been compromised?

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

It doesn't improve any guarantees, it's strictly an opsec practice. By default you can publicly view the fingerprint of the public key(s) of the recipient(s) to aid in selecting the correct key for decryption, while --throw-keyids removes that metadata. Don't use it if you want to demonstrate that the message is not additionally encrypted to other keys, i.e. the conversation is confidential. Use it if you don't want a MitM to know who you're talking with.

[-] akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

Thanks! I learned a lot here. :)

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 weeks ago

Happy to help ^^

this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
10 points (100.0% liked)

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