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Encrypt messages using SSH public keys from GitHub. (github.com)
7 points by jasoncodes 4820 days ago
1 comments

Wouldn't it be better to feed the RSA public key into an existing message encryption system like gpg? There are a few things you could improve that way:

* No message integrity - it would be good to be able to sign and encrypt.

* Encrypting the same plaintext twice gives the same ciphertext (there is no randomness). This means that an attacker can confirm if a given ciphertext corresponds to a suspected plaintext.

* RSA is comparatively slow; it is usually better to encrypt a symmetric key with RSA and then encrypt the message with the symmetric key.

Sure. This is intended as a quick way to send small bits of sensitive information over email, chat, etc.