Hey guys,

So a while ago I encrypted (with a password) a .7z file (Look at software 7Zip, if you're unfamiliar with it). After checking that it decrypted to a functional file, I deleted the original and kept the .7z.asc

However now, when I try and decrypt the .7z.asc, it just tells me "Decryption of this file failed" (the password is most definitely correct).

I tried decrypting it through the Konsole, to get a better idea at why it was failing and this was the output:

gpg: armor header:
gpg: CAST5 encrypted data
gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase
gpg: original file name='Desktop.7z'
gpg: [don't know]: invalid packet (ctb=33)
gpg: [don't know]: invalid packet (ctb=43)
gpg: WARNING: message was not integrity protected
gpg: [don't know]: invalid packet (ctb=02)
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.

I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing anything to fix this... I feel it's a lost cause, but I was hoping maybe someone would be able to dazzle me with some wisdom before I gave up?

Thanks if anyone can help.

It seems that GPG itself is not recognising your file. Are you sure it is the encrypted file, and that you encrypted it with KGpg?

If you are, can you please try the below in a terminal?

Code: Select all

gpg --decrypt Desktop.7z.asc

Yep, I'm sure I encrypted it with KGpg.

Well, running that command does this:

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gpg: CAST5 encrypted data
gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase

Here I'm prompted for a password, I give it one, and it starts outputting special characters into the prompt. Until finally it seems to get stuck on

2c1;2c1;2c1;2c

If I run "gpg --decrypt ./Desktop.7z.asc > output.7z"
Then I get:

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gpg: CAST5 encrypted data
gpg: encrypted with 1 passphrase
gpg: [don't know]: invalid packet (ctb=33)
gpg: [don't know]: invalid packet (ctb=43)
gpg: WARNING: message was not integrity protected
gpg: [don't know]: invalid packet (ctb=02)
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.

And "output.7z" is a file, but it isn't a valid .7z file

It seems that the decryption process itself fails due to unknown reasons. Was this data encrypted on the same computer (with the same system install) or was it done on a different system/installation?

If it was done on a different system, then that version may have been newer than your current system, causing this issue. In which case, I recommend trying to decrypt it on that system instead.