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From: jbc@mcc-db.UUCP (John B. Chambers)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Re: mail encryption/decryption
Message-ID: <231@mcc-db.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 14:51:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcc-db.231
Posted: Mon Jul  1 14:51:27 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 09:41:42 EDT
References: <518@dicomed.UUCP> <142@whuts.UUCP>
Organization: MCC (Austin, TX)
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Xref: watmath net.unix:4950 net.unix-wizards:13708

> > Is is possible to use crypt with mail?  THe experience I've had says no.
> > Our guru has gone off to greener pastures.
> > 
> >  john salmi    {ihnp4,mgnetp}!dicomed!john
> >  dicomed corp
> >  minneapolis
> > 
> 
>  You cannot directly mail encrypt files. Mail(1) (AT&T's at least) will
> strip out all NUL characters before sending mail. So if crypt(1) generates
> any NULs the person receiving that mail will not be able to decrypt it
> correctly even with the correct key.
> 
> You'll have to write two programs: One to replace NULs with someother character
> sequence before mailing.  And another that puts the NULs back in to the file
> after reading that sequence.   The same goes if you want to mail cpio(1) type
> files.
> 
> 	Brian Walden
> 	AT&T-Bell Labs
> 	...!ihnp4!whuts!bsw



You should be able to adequately adapt uuencode and uudecode for the purposes
of transmission, but I certainly wouldn't rely on crypt(1) to protect anything 
I really treasured.
-- 

John B. Chambers, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, TX
{ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!mcc-db!jbc, jbc@ut-sally.ARPA, chambers@mcc.ARPA