On Jun 20, 2012, at 1:10 PM, John wrote:

> Hello.
> 
> When someone uses my public key to encrypt a message to me, what prevents 
> them from trying to use an encryption algorithm of his choice. In other 
> words, does the public key itself limit the options available to the person 
> sending the message? Thanks.

Yes, it does.  The public key contains a list of all algorithms that you can 
(or are willing to) accept (you can see your own list with --edit-key and the 
"showpref" command).  By default, the sending GPG consults this list when 
picking an algorithm to ensure it does not pick one that you can't/won't handle.

However, note that the sender (if they choose to), can override this default 
and pick whatever they like.  This is not recommended as it can result in a 
message that you, the recipient, can't read, but senders do have that power.

David


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