GNU bug report logs - #65316
29.1.50; EPA can falsely report "wrong passphrase" when decryption fails

Previous Next

Full log

View this message in rfc822 format

From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Jens Schmidt <jschmidt4gnu <at> vodafonemail.de>
Subject: bug#65316: closed (Re: bug#65316: 29.1.50; EPA can falsely report
 "wrong passphrase" when decryption fails)
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 08:13:02 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Your bug report

#65316: 29.1.50; EPA can falsely report "wrong passphrase" when decryption fails

which was filed against the emacs package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to 65316 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

-- 
65316: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=65316
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems

[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Jens Schmidt <jschmidt4gnu <at> vodafonemail.de>
Cc: 65316-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#65316: 29.1.50;
 EPA can falsely report "wrong passphrase" when decryption fails
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 11:12:18 +0300

> Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:49:07 +0200
> From:  Jens Schmidt via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
> 
> # prepare a public-key-encrypted file test.gpg in cwd
> 
> # make pinentry executable non-executable
> sudo chmod a-x /usr/bin/pinentry
> 
> emacs -Q
> 
> C-x C-f test.gpg RET
> 
> => Wrong passphrase: No secret key
> 
> Where Emacs 27 would report in a separate *Error* buffer:
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> Error while decrypting with "/usr/bin/gpg":
> 
> gpg: encrypted with 3072-bit RSA key, ID D0EB77D91C0802D6, created 2022-12-03
>       "test-key"
> gpg: public key decryption failed: No pinentry
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> The root cause is in function `epa--wrong-password-p', defined as
> follows:
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> (defun epa--wrong-password-p (context)
>   (let ((error-string (epg-context-error-output context)))
>     (and (string-match
>           "decryption failed: \\(Bad session key\\|No secret key\\)"
>           error-string)
>          (match-string 1 error-string))))
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> It should not search for "No secret key" but rather for "Bad
> passphrase".  "No secret key" just means that there is no secret key
> available to decrypt the file, "Bad passphrase" means that no secret
> keys can be used because of a wrong passphrase.
> 
> I collected a couple of non-bad-passphrase error messages from GnuPG
> decryption failures, all done with:
> 
>   [emacs-29]$ gpg --version
>   gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.27
>   libgcrypt 1.8.8
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> # public key, chmod a-x /usr/bin/pinentry
> gpg: encrypted with 3072-bit RSA key, ID D0EB77D91C0802D6, created 2022-12-03
>       "test-key"
> gpg: public key decryption failed: No pinentry
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> 
> # symmetric, chmod a-x /usr/bin/pinentry
> gpg: AES256.CFB encrypted data
> gpg: problem with the agent: No pinentry
> gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> 
> # public key, 0744 empty GnuPG home directory
> gpg: WARNING: unsafe permissions on homedir '/home/jschmidt/work/emacs-29/xxx'
> gpg: encrypted with RSA key, ID D0EB77D91C0802D6
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> 
> # public key, 0400 empty GnuPG home directory
> gpg: failed to create temporary file '/home/jschmidt/work/emacs-29/xxx/.#lk0x00005571263a1230.sappc2.4974': Permission denied
> gpg: keyblock resource '/home/jschmidt/work/emacs-29/xxx/pubring.kbx': Permission denied
> gpg: encrypted with RSA key, ID D0EB77D91C0802D6
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> 
> # public key, 0700 empty GnuPG home directory
> gpg: encrypted with RSA key, ID D0EB77D91C0802D6
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> And here the real bad-passphrase messages:
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> # symmetric, bad passphrase entered
> gpg: AES256.CFB encrypted data
> gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase
> gpg: decryption failed: Bad session key
> 
> # public key, bad passphrase entered
> gpg: encrypted with 3072-bit RSA key, ID D0EB77D91C0802D6, created 2022-12-03
>       "test-key"
> gpg: public key decryption failed: Bad passphrase
> gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> Patch attached.

Thanks, installed on the emacs-29 branch, and closing the bug.

[Message part 3 (message/rfc822, inline)]

From: Jens Schmidt <jschmidt4gnu <at> vodafonemail.de>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 29.1.50; EPA can falsely report "wrong passphrase" when decryption
 fails
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:06:35 +0200

Placeholder to draw a bug number ... details and patch to follow.

--------------------------------------------------

In GNU Emacs 29.1.50 (build 6, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
 3.24.24, cairo version 1.16.0) of 2023-08-15 built on sappc2
Repository revision: 26949819df07cb36ed773cc9df6ca91f5f49e3d5
Repository branch: false-positives-from-epa--wrong-password-p
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12011000
System Description: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)

Configured using:
 'configure -C --with-native-compilation'

Configured features:
ACL CAIRO DBUS FREETYPE GIF GLIB GMP GNUTLS GPM GSETTINGS HARFBUZZ JPEG
JSON LCMS2 LIBOTF LIBSELINUX LIBSYSTEMD LIBXML2 M17N_FLT MODULES
NATIVE_COMP NOTIFY INOTIFY PDUMPER PNG RSVG SECCOMP SOUND THREADS TIFF
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS X11 XDBE XIM XINPUT2 XPM GTK3 ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LC_COLLATE: POSIX
  value of $LC_TIME: POSIX
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.