Importing a .p12 type cert into GPG

[George O'Reilly]

Hi All,

I have been asked to generate a .p12 file using OpenSSL which I have done.
Then I was asked to import it into my encryption tool which happens to be GnuPG. I am struggling with this as I get the message.
Gpg: no valiad OpenPGP data found
Gpg: Total number processed : 0

I am new to Cryptography so to save me endless hours in the forums I was wondering if someone could answer the following question.

Can a .p12 file be imported into GPG? If not,why not,and is there a work around?

Sorry that's 3 questions.

Many Thanks
George

[Steven Schweda]

> I am new to Cryptography [...]

I may know even less than you, but my
guess(es) would be

1. No.
2. Because the data are untranslatable.
3. No, other than "Don't try."

> Then I was asked to import it into my
> encryption tool [...]

So fas as I know (which may not be very far),
GnuPG uses its own key system, which has
nothing in particular in common with OpenSSL
certificates. I'd ask the fellow who made
the suggestion how it should be done
(assuming that the request even makes sense).

[Matti_Kurkela]

As far as I know, Steven's answer was 100% correct and accurate.

The fact that you were asked to generate a .p12 file suggests this encryption is somehow related to SSL/TLS.

GnuPG can be used to encrypt regular files or (with appropriate email applications/plugins) emails.

There are two incompatible ways to encrypt emails: S/MIME (which can use certificates similar to SSL) and OpenPGP (which is what GnuPG does).

Since you haven't disclosed what you're supposed to do with your encryption tool, we cannot offer any concrete suggestions.

But if this happens to be about email, then it might help to know that Mozilla Thunderbird can handle both S/MIME and OpenPGP encryptions: it has native support for S/MIME, and OpenPGP is supported using an extension called "Enigmail".

MK

[Alex Crow]

Dear George,

It's not HMRC SET you're trying to set up is it?

If so, I was looking at using gnupg (and GPG4Win) but it seems it's only going to work with the commercial PGP.

Whatever the answer to the above question, did you succeed with GPG?

Cheers

Alex

[George O'Reilly]

Alex,

Yes it was for HMRC SET and judging from the replies it proved impossible. I gave up and used PGP instead.

Hope this helps
George

[George O'Reilly]

No solution found but used PGP instead.

[Alex Crow]

Many thanks for that. Disappointing but I can save some fruitless hours now.

Alex