Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mcc-db.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!mcc-db!jbc 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) Lines: 31 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