Graphical Frontend for GnuPG (Win32)

Crixus writes "For those of you who are loathe to move from PGP to GnuPG on your Windows boxen because of no graphical interface, now you have one. It's GPL'd and it's called Windows Privacy Tray (WinPT) and acts, looks, and feels just like PGP-Tray. It's still in development, but the last release I got works great, and is getting better (because unlike the OTHER frontend for GnuPG, WinPT is actually being worked on). The author is also having a contest to draw what will be the official Icon for WinPT. Why not give it a try?"

I'm confused!

[Crixus]

Also, where the heck IS this thread? It isn't on the main page, so where did it end up? And where is here?

Rich...

Re:GPG should be used under Windows only with caut

[Crixus]

Please note that the GPG website says that "due to the lack of a well tested entropy source, it should be used with some caution" under Windows. Linux is the recommended platform, the BSDs are the only others that get a full thumbs up.

Actually, although the site said that, it's not the case anymore, and I believe hasn't been the case since version 1.0.3 (maybe 1.0.2?). I asked Werner this very question this morning and he said that yes, the Win32 version is running securely and that he had forgotten to update the website as to this fact.

As I had originally assumed, the moment he removed the warning from next to the link to download the Win32 binary, was the moment it was known to be secure. He has now updated the GnuPG web site [gnupg.org] to reflect this.

Rich...

Re:System Tray for Linux

[Crixus]

(I am concerned, though, with whether GPG should be used on Windows as Stormie points out above.)

In fact, here is what I asked Werner, and his exact reply:

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Are you saying that the Win32 version does have a secure EGD now and that it is offers similar security as PGP? No worries?

Actually Windows is quite good in delivering much random - everything is different with every use :-)

We use the same methods Peter Gutmann uses for his cryptlib and actually it is pretty the same source code. He has done quite a lot of research in this area and so I think the random numbers are okay.

Werner

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Rich...

GPG should be used under Windows only with caution

[Stormie]

Please note that the GPG website [gnupg.org] says that "due to the lack of a well tested entropy source, it should be used with some caution" under Windows. Linux is the recommended platform, the BSDs are the only others that get a full thumbs up.

Still, that's an improvement - last time I looked, they said that you should only ever use the Windows version for decrypting and verifying signatures, never for generating keys or encrypting, due to this lack of a secure random source..

Wrong category?

[YvRich]

Err, why is this listed under YRO?

I'll grant that privacy and encryption are common subjects here, but this is really just a Freshmeat announcement masquerading as a story.

System Tray for Linux

[hoeferbe]

I'm glad to hear of the system-tray functionality being available for Windows users. This is a feature that truly makes PGP easy to use with *any* Windows based e-mail program and will only spread the use of GPG in this area. (I am concerned, though, with whether GPG should be used on Windows as Stormie points out above.)
What I am wondering is when a system-tray like program will be written for the Linux version of GPG. Is there such a thing that I have just not heard of? I have no in-depth programming skills, so the difficulty of such a task is not known to me. I imagine it might be kind of tough since each window manager has its own way of doing things -- no standard clipboard to write and read things to like Windows has.

GPA

[Crixus]

Werner is working on a gui program for both Win32 and linux called Gnu Privacy Assistant. It won't reside in the system tray, however.

From the sound of it, when I last asked him anyway, I got the impression he hadn't worked on it in a while.

With regards to a secure entropy source on the Windows version.... that warning used to be posted right next to the link where you could download the win32 binary.... but it's been gone frorm there for some time. So I made (the perhaps erroneous) assumption that they had found a secure EGD and that the windows version was kosher.

As someone pointed out, the warning is still there (though not as severe) but it's in an out of the way spot ont he web site. It's not as conspicuous, which I think is a bad thing.

Rich...