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How to send an email encrypted to the recipient's public key?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Stans

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I'm using Thunderbird v.78.2.1 (32 bit). I would like to know if there is a simple way to send an email encrypted to the recipient's public key, but noting that I don't have a private/public key for my own email address. I understand that I could create the message offline, encrypt it to the recipient and attach it to the email, but I wonder if there's a more direct way to send an encrypted email without having your own encryption key(s).

I'm using Thunderbird v.78.2.1 (32 bit). I would like to know if there is a simple way to send an email encrypted to the recipient's public key, but noting that I don't have a private/public key for my own email address. I understand that I could create the message offline, encrypt it to the recipient and attach it to the email, but I wonder if there's a more direct way to send an encrypted email without having your own encryption key(s).

Chosen solution

Unfortunately, Tbird won't let you enable e2ee for an account without first generating a personal key for that identity. Having the recipient's public key alone is not enough. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introduction-to-e2e-encryption. This is also briefly stated in the ee2e section of the Account Settings dialog/page.

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What's the point of doing so if validation of your own digital identity as the sender is NOT important? It defeats the whole point of using end-to-end encryption.

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Thank you for your comment. I understand that what I describe is not end-to-end encryption, but there could be circumstances when this would be a valid case.

Modified by Stephen

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Chosen Solution

Unfortunately, Tbird won't let you enable e2ee for an account without first generating a personal key for that identity. Having the recipient's public key alone is not enough. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/introduction-to-e2e-encryption. This is also briefly stated in the ee2e section of the Account Settings dialog/page.