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List:       kmail-devel
Subject:    Some suggestions and some problems.
From:       neter () nym ! xg ! nu
Date:       2000-04-26 19:23:01
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I would like to make some suggestions for kmail as well as note some problems.

To start I run the 1.0.29-1 (Last "STABLE" release) 
I have been trying to get PGP to work. I am running 
pgp 2.6.3in. It seems to work (to some extent) with pgp 5.0 although 
there are some problems. 

1) after spell checking the message it core dumps.
2) only one chance to enter a pgp password. (more on this later)
3) if PGP password is wrong kmail hangs on send..
4) some mail vanishes from mail box.
5) filters need to check to see if it is a uuencoded or encrypted message
   before applying filter rules to body of message.
6) there needs to be a way to turn off the pop up meter when it downloads new 
   messages. (has caused problems when mail is up and i am trying to login
   to a system or enter a password)
7) does not seem to catch pgp ID and encrypt outgoing mail.

Some additions i would like to see. (Note: I use encryption a little more
 than most.)

1) nym account setup support.
2) nym account receive support.
3) cypherpunk remailer support.
4) (optional) mixmaster remailer support.
5) good PGP encryption/decryption support with multi pal secrets passwords 
   and conventional encryption/decryption passwords.
6) when responding allow to select From: e-mail address, needs to know how to 
   send nym style mail, and allow selecting of pgp keys to sign with.
7) PGP key management.

Ok ill start with the problems.

#1 kinda explains itself..
#2,3 if i miss key my pgp password it accepts it and then hangs when i try to
     send a message out. some times it requires a kill -9 to get it to let go
     and exit. I have to exit the software and reload to correct the password.
#4 I have not been able to repeat this. It seems to be a random thing. I will
   see 150 messages downloading and then only find 120 in the mail box to read.
   I have been checking on the server before down load to see what is missed 
   but do not seem to see a pattern to it. They do not show up in the trash
   bin ether.
#5 I have some filters to check the message body for such things as "Adults
   Only", "One time mailing", "XXX" and "Remove"+"in the subject" (Dumps most
   spam) and it seems to catch pgp messages as well as uuencoded messages
   from time to time. I personally think that if it sees a "Begin 664 ???"
   it should skip to the "end" and continue the filter as well as doing the 
   same for "----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----" and "-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----"
   This way you are not applying the filter to encrypted/encoded messages.
#6 explains it self.
#7 I have not been able to get it to encrypt an out going message. (This could
   be on my end and I am open to suggestions.)


The Requested additions.. ;)

#1,2 Nym's are the modern day Equivalent  to anon.penet.fi.. For those of you 
     who have not been on the net that long it is a bi-directional anonymous
     e-mail account that uses pgp encryption to provide a secure email address.
     For more information on nym's and well as how they work look at 
     http://anon.xg.nu 
     There is currently only one (unix/linux) piece of software to automate
     creation, deletion, and usage of nym accounts. It is called premail
     and is written in perl. Suposed to work with pine and it does not work with
     the new nym style. I have been doing manual creations of accounts. As
     well as manual decryption of email for some time now and would like to 
     see some software to make it a little easier.. PLEASE... ;)
#3,4 Number 3 would not be to hard to do. It is a matter of message format
     and encryption with the public key of the server. There are already 
     predefined formats for server information. Please check out 
     http://anon.xg.nu/list/remailer-list.html for cypherpunk data. 
     mixmaster would be harder to do as it does not use pgp to crypt its 
     messages. There are links on anon.xg.nu to mixmaster software and code
#5   To support the above you would need good PGP support. With such things as
     detecting incoming email from remailers and trying your keys against 
     the message until it gets a decode. (Please look at the way premail 
     handles the decoding of messages. Also note that with good pgp support
     the users pgp passwords could be stored in a file that was pgp'd and 
     the user could be asked to provide a password as start up to decrypt the
     password's file. Allowing better security for one's e-mail.
#6   Allow the user to select the From: line e-mail address. Check it against
     the configuration and change the headers as needed. If it is from 
     joe@foo.bar change the .sig, reply-to, etc to match that config. If an 
     account is selected that is labeled as a nym format the message for nym
     relay. Again check the data at http://anon.xg.nu for nym usage. Allow
     the user to select the pgp key in the configuration to sign messages that
     come from the account.
#7   With all of this pgp key management is a must.. ;) 

Sorry about it being so long. These are just a few things that i would like to
see added. I don't know if anyone is up to it I really wish i could program in C
or C++ to help.. Let me know if there is anything the team needs though. I may
just have a spare or two.. ;)

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