>> I've been encrypting and decrypting email on the same remote server. >> I was under the impression that this was a security risk because it >> meant having the public and private keys on the same machine. I tried >> importing the public key to my local system and decrypting via >> enigmail but I got "Error - secret key needed to decrypt message". I >> imported the private key locally and now it decrypts fine, but I have >> both keys on the same system again. >> >> My understanding of GPG is weak. Can someone point out my misconception(s)? >> > Hi, > > you need the recipient's public key to encrypt the message. This > message will be decrypted with the recipient's private key. > > So if you encrypt something for yourself, you'll need your public key > to encrypt and your public key to decrypt. > > Regards, > > Boris.
It looks like I've imported a pub/sec keypair now. Should I remove the public key for security? Maybe I misunderstood from the beginning and having both keys on the same system isn't a security issue? - Grant
