Data Encryption for files sent from OpenVMS to Other Platforms

[Michael Trojak]

Does anyone know of an encryption solution that will encrypt on OpenVMS and decrypt on other (specifically Windows) platforms? I have a situation where we need to transfer sensitive information in text files from our legacy (VMS) system to applications on Windows systems. The Encryption for OpenVMS Version 1.6 states "Inter-system encryption operations with non-OpenVMS platforms are not supported." Has any tried using this product to encrypt on the VMS side and decrypt on another platform? The documentaion states that the VMS Encryption software uses DES standards so it seems likely that they may be done.

[Karl Rohwedder]

There are version of GPG and GnuPG for OpenVMS available, e.g. here:

http://www.antinode.org/dec/sw/gnupg.html

regards Kalle

[Karl Rohwedder]

Btw, the HP OpenVMS homepage has some info also:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/opensource/opensource.html#gnupg

regards Kalle

[Ian Miller. · Accepted solution]

Encryption for VMS does use standard algorithms to encrypt but as it saves the VMS file attributes etc then its not compatible.

Look at
http://www.gnupg.org/

It's available for VMS at
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/opensource/gnupg.html

[Steven Schweda]

I'd start at:

http://antinode.org/dec/sw/gnupg.html

but I may be biased.

I haven't heard anything (good or bad) about
my GnuPG 1.4.5 kit, and I don't think that
anyone else has tried the (newer) 1.4.6 kit.
I assume that no one is using the stuff in
any very serious way (or perhaps it's all
perfect).

As usual, "text files" can mean many things,
not all of which are easily portable. You
might be wise to start with Stream_LF (or,
perhaps, if the target is Windows, Stream)
record format. The Info-ZIP Zip/UnZip
programs can also attempt to translate text
file line endings, so it might pay to encrypt
a Zip archive instead of the raw text files.
Some experimentation will probably be needed.

[Andy Bustamante]

Depending on your business requirements, nother option is to encrypt the link. You can use SSH and port forwarding to create a secure FTP link. See http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/83final/BA548_90007/ch05.html for details.

Andy

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Or use SCP or SFTP of the SSH package.
To transfer big files user smallest number of bits.

Wim

[Robert Atkinson]

For a simple solution, you could use ZIP :-

ZIP

UNIX_Options

-P encrypt with specified "password"


Rob.

[Steven Schweda]

> For a simple solution [...]

Simple, but it's not very good encryption.
People offer free programs which claim to
break it, for example.

Also, the documentation suggests using "-e"
(for an interactive password request) as
opposed to "-P password", to avoid
encouraging people to store passwords in
scripts. (But not documenting "-P" has not
eliminated requests for it.)

There is some possibility of the Info-ZIP
programs supporting stronger encryption in
the future, but it may be a while. Depending
on circumstances, currently available
public-key encryption programs might be
better than the currently unavailable
stronger Zip encryption.

[Robert Atkinson]

As I said, a "simple" solution.