topic Re: Query on GPG and encryption. in Operating System - HP-UX

Query on GPG and encryption.

aruns_s — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:06:15 GMT

Hi Gurus,

I have heard that some HP-UX hardware doesn’t support GPG and can only run without encryption.Known servers are HP K220, D350, G50, H50, Appollo 735 and D350.Just would like to know if L2000 suppors GPG.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Query on GPG and encryption.

Dennis Handly — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:35:26 GMT

I would assume if these old boxes G50 and 735 support it, then L2000 would too. The first two are PA1.1.

Re: Query on GPG and encryption.

Matti_Kurkela — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 06:37:48 GMT

On the GPG web page it says:
http://www.gnupg.org/(en)/download/supported_systems.html

----
(list of supported systems: GNU/Linux systems, Free/Net/OpenBSD, Windows, Mac OS X)

GnuPG compiles and runs on many more systems, but due to the lack of a well tested entropy source, it should be used with some caution. We have positive reports on these systems:

* AIX v4.3
* BSDI v4.0.1 with i386
* HPUX v9.x, v10.x and v11.0 with HPPA CPU
* IRIX v6.3 with MIPS R10000 CPU
* MP-RAS v3.02
* OSF1 V4.0 with Alpha CPU
* OS/2 version 2
* SCO UnixWare/7.1.0
* SunOS, Solaris on Sparc and x86
* USL Unixware v1.1.2
----

As even HPUX 9.x is supported, it's more likely that nobody has bothered to send an explicit confirmation that HP-UX 11.11 and above will work.

Regarding the entropy source: HP-UX 11.11 and above do have /dev/random and /dev/urandom (for 11.11, search for optional KRNG package in software.hp.com, for 11.23 and above it is built in to the OS). I don't know hether this entropy source is "well tested" in the sense intended here, or not.

As far as I know, GPG is quite well-behaved Unix application: it does not need any specific hardware support. Of course, the source of truly random numbers (=entropy) is a great thing to have when encryption is involved, but if one does not exist, GPG has some workarounds for it.

MK

Re: Query on GPG and encryption.

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:07:21 GMT

Shalom,

PGP has been very stable and non-problematic for us.

HP-UX 11.11 only.

SEP

Re: Query on GPG and encryption.

aruns_s — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:31:22 GMT

Thanks Steve.

I was worried that GPG won't run on L2000 boxes.

Re: Query on GPG and encryption.

Steven Schweda — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:59:31 GMT

> PGP has been very stable and
> non-problematic for us.

PGP is not GPG (GnuPG), but I can think of no
reason for any trouble with either of them on
any particular hardware type. You can run
them on a VAX, if you want to.

> I have heard [...]

Where? (I'd stop listening there.)