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Re: mpi too large (42434 bits)



On Tuesday, October 25 at 10:17 AM, quoth jhelfman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Hi.

When I send encrypted files to recipients through mutt, they are receiving
this error when trying to decrypt.

mpi too large (42434 bits)

If I send with another MUA, there are no issues.

Do you have any ideas what this could point to?

Hmm, well, an MPI is a multi-precision-integer. They're explained here: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/gpg/wkoch_rfc2440.html

An MPI consists of two pieces: a number saying how many bits there are, and a string consisting of the bits. Strictly literally speaking, it has a ceiling on the number of bits. The representation itself, according to that RFC, can handle about 65535 bits... but 2^42434 is an INCREDIBLY HUGE number. That's about 5.2k of memory for a *single* number (remember back when computers only had 8k of memory for everything they did?). So, either your gpg has a different self-imposed ceiling on MPI values, or it detected a different problem: it somehow detected that the MPI had a larger string of bits than it was supposed to (note: this could be pretty hard to detect in an efficient system).

In either case, it sounds like a bug in GPG. What version do you have installed? I've got 1.4.2 installed and I haven't had a problem with it (certainly not a problem like that). Also, how big of a thing are you trying to encrypt?

~Kyle

P.S. Just because large numbers are cool... 2^42434 is:
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