Evolution fails to decrypt GPG message if signature (not encryption) key is not available

[Pauli Virtanen]

Binary package hint: evolution

It seems that the bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+bug/90339 has reappeared in evolution 2.30.3-1ubuntu7.1

Actual results:

1) I receive a GPG encrypted mail, sent to my public key. However, the mail is signed with a key not in my keyring.

2) Evolution does not display the mail, instead it displays a red error text output from GPG, with a message that the public key used for the signature was not found.

3) Result: I cannot read the mail using Evolution. However, I am able to read the mail on the command line by using `gpg --decrypt` -- it shows a warning about missing signature key, but also shows the mail body.

Expected results:
Evolution should show the mail body, plus a broken "seal" at the bottom indicating that the signature public key was not found.

Does this happen every time?
Yes.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: evolution 2.30.3-1ubuntu7.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: ath9k nvidia mac80211 ath9k_common ath9k_hw ath cfg80211 compat
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Dec 12 15:13:56 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fi_FI.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evolution

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for your bug report. Is this still an issue with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal? May you please check and comment back? Thanks in advance!.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for evolution (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[David Ayers (ayers)]

This is an issue for Maverick and Lucid which are still being supported. So I'm reopening this issue.
Due to many issues with Natty's usability changes and my workflow I haven't tried it there. Yet even if it may be fixed in Natty it should be fixed in Maverick and Lucid also.

[David Ayers (ayers)]

Note that if a message is signed & encrypted /by evolution/ then the message is
decrypted and the icon and message are displayed about the missing public key
to verify the signature.

Yet if the message is signed & encrypted /by Thunderbird/ the decryption dialog
is shown and processed yet the contents are not rendered but displayed as
attachments.

[David Ayers (ayers)]

I forgot to mention that this issue does exit for Natty.

[David Ayers (ayers)]

I'm sorry I cannot test oneric since the current testdrive image stalls while attempting to display the Installation Welcome window.

[David Ayers (ayers)]

I have now been able verify that this issue still exists in Oneiric.

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

It's unclear how to fix this, since it would need at least decoupling the decryption from signature verification, which doesn't appear to be so easy to do with just gpg - I couldn't figure it out. There's still a bug open upstream though, so my suggestion would be to add as much debugging information to that bug report so that someone can look into the issue and try to fix it.

Note that there are already possible workarounds. One of which being to manually download the public key for the user sending the email; since the error will only show up if an encrypted email is sent and no public key is available. It's also possible to send emails in different formats (not pgp-mime) which will allow evolution to display the email properly.

To manually download public keys, you can start "seahorse" (the Passwords and encryption keys application, search for keys by name or by ID (with the ID provided in the gpg message), then use the import button once the correct key is selected.

[Jörg Frings-Fürst (jff-de)]

Bug from 2010. Version not longer supportet.
Change status to Invalid (see gnome-bugs)

[David Ayers (ayers)]

I can confirm that this issue still exists in Evolution 3.2.3 provided by 12.04 LTS