Automatically attaching my GPG public key to outgoing email

Hi there, I recently switched to Evolution from Thunderbird. Thunderbird had a very helpful feature where you can automatically attach your public key to any outgoing mail.

It would look like Evolution also has this feature. When I go to account properties > Security > Advanced Options (under “General”), there’s a “Send own public key in outgoing mails” option which I have checked.

However, my public key is not being attached to outgoing emails. Anyone know why this might be?

Edit: I’ve realised that the emails with my public key attached were sent by Thunderbird, so Evolution is not attaching my keys at all.

Hi,
did you select the GPG key, or it’s looked up by the email? It can be
the key cannot be found.

One thing to mention, the key is not really attached, it’s added in an
Autocrypt header. Check your Sent folder and there the message source
(Ctrl+U), whether it’s there or not.

Also, how do you send the messages, please? Is it an SMTP server or any
other? I know the “Microsoft 365” account type servers strip this
particular header before sending, thus even Evolution passes it to the
server the recipient does not receive it. The “Exchange Web Services”
might have a similar problem, but I cannot tell that for sure, I’d need
to test it.

Bye,
Milan

Hi there, thanks, yes I do have an Autocrypt header. Does that mean that eg when people reply to my email they have my public key to encrypt responses to me? If someone wanted to download my public key from an email they got from me so they can import it, could they do that?

I’m used to the way Thunderbird does it by actually attaching an armored public key but so long as it achieves the same effect I don’t mind this autocrypt header.

Yes it’s an SMTP server and my own SMTP server that I run. I only strip IP address and mail client headers

Hi,
yes, but only if their client supports the AUtocrypt standard. That
header knows more than just the public key, you can advise the
recipient to encrypt and their client, if it knows of the Autocrypt,
may follow your request. The Thunderbird supports it too, but I guess
they have this old fashioned “attach as a file” too. Evolution doesn’t
have this.

More about the Autocrypt is here:
https://docs.autocrypt.org/

Bye,
Milan
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