[Feature Request]: PGP Encryption / GPG Support / Keybase

[heywoodlh]

Can I use GPG to encrypt email in Mailspring yet? Couldn't find anything in the KB and I also couldn't use any plugins to add the functionality myself.

I would have checked out the roadmap to see if there was a plan to implement this but it doesn't seem to be public. #

[bengotow]

Hey @heywoodlh — thanks for reaching out! There used to be a Keybase plugin for Nylas Mail that added GPG encryption to the app, and theoretically it /should/ still mostly work. In a few months, Mailspring will have a plugin browser built into it and I think it'd be great to have an encryption plugin in there. If anyone has some time to dive in to this, it'd be great!

[heywoodlh]

In OS X I can't use the menu to install plugins. Is there any way for me to install the plugin manually in Mailspring? I would totally love to dig into it and report back.

[bengotow]

Oh wow - yeah, it just... doesn't work. I'll see if I can get that fixed.

In the meantime, if you want to install a plugin open ~/Library/Application Support/Mailspring in the Finder. Create a folder called packages there, and put your plugin folder inside it. If you relaunch Mailspring it should find it and attempt to load it!

[heywoodlh]

Perfect, thank you for the quick responses.

I'll work on getting that plugin installed and see how it goes.

[heywoodlh]

I found an open source N1 PGP plugin called Cypher and forked it here.

I placed it in ~/Library/Application Support/Mailspring/packages/ and when I run MailSpring I get an error in the developer's console stating that it cannot find the module 'nylas-export'.

Not sure where that module is, as I cannot seem to find it in the original Nylas Mail repository, in the Mailspring repo, or in the cypher repository that I forked.

Attached is a copy of the error log: nylas-error.txt

I am submitting this here to ask for additional help as I am not a developer and I think this would really be a great feature to add to Mailspring.

I opened an issue on the repository I forked here. Any help fixing this would be appreciated. :)

[buildersbrewery]

Probably due to config.json always being overridden with these?

    "disabledPackages": [
        "message-view-on-github",
        "personal-level-indicators",
        "phishing-detection",
        "nylas-private-salesforce",
        "github-contact-card",
        "keybase",
        "composer-markdown",
        "composer-scheduler",
        "composer-mail-merge",
        "send-and-archive",
        "main-calendar"
      ]

[heywoodlh]

@buildersbrewery I'll have to take a look at that tomorrow. Do you have a proposed solution?

[buildersbrewery]

Seems to be part of a planned paywall (#25, #28, #33)?

[alxjsn]

S/MIME support would also be a nice feature to add. :)

[agsdot]

👍 for re-adding keybase integration in the future again.

[tim-hm]

Would love to see keebase/gpg support!

[deidyomega]

Just as a note, once gpg support is working, I'll become a paying customer.

[simotek]

I also need this to fully migrate away from firefox.

[JDsnyke]

Any news on this feature?

[TheChiefMeat]

Would also love to see this feature. I know Keybase has an open source javascript implementation of PGP (https://github.com/keybase/kbpgp), I even helped implement some features (signing, signing and encryption) onto a website you can find here:

https://thechiefmeat.github.io/pgp/

Seeing as the client uses quite a bit of Javascript already, you should be able to implement kbpgp into the client, I'd even help out if that meant getting this feature done :)

[SkyCrawl]

Another +1. I could repeat many statements from the above comments. This is a very important feature for Mailspring to get more users/customers.

[zaphbbrox]

And another +1. Really looking forward to this feature, so I can use Mailspring as my only mail app.

[daanpanis]

+1. I've been looking for a good looking email client that supports PGP encryption. If Mailspring starts supporting this it would be the perfect mail client.

[pirhoo]

Me too! That said, it's a bad day for GPG: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/attention-pgp-users-new-vulnerabilities-require-you-take-action-now

[thomwiggers]

The EFF and the authors of that paper are doing PGP a disservice. There are some bugs in handling decryption failures in various email clients, PGP itself is mostly fine.

[jramb]

In this case it is related to the email encoding and HTML features (sadly Mailspring allows only HTML, no plain text only right now). That is a serious issue and not just a simple implementation glitch and has nothing to do with the PGP algorithm being good or not. EFF seems right to recommend to switch GPG / S/MIME off completely in the clients. Sadly.

[samtuke]

Another +1 for GPG.

[Lacroze]

+1

[franktopel]

+1

[jorgedferreira]

Any news on this? Doing a test drive of the email client and this is a must for me.

[gdude2002]

@bengotow Has there been any movement on this? It's a very important thing to be able to do, given just how holey the global email infrastructure actually is.

I tried to load the old Nylas plugin, but nothing visible happens when I do. The disabled plugin plugin in this repo just throws errors.

EDIT: It does enable, though. No errors in the console.

[michaelplews]

+1

[tcurdt]

So why all the thumbs down, @DenisBY ?

[DenisBY]

https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/967

[tcurdt]

@DenisBY while I agree, it probably is more productive to give that link instead just giving a thumbs down. Otherwise your thumbs down reaction is as much useful as those reaction only comments. Just saying.

[phamhung77]

Just as a note, once gpg support is working, I'll become a paying customer.

Me too :)

[cornfeedhobo]

@pirhoo when using gpg, one should not be enabling html rendering, but I am very glad you mentioned it, given the nature of this client.

My $0.02, not having this feature prevents me from even considering Mailspring. I know simple folk like to laugh at GPG support, but I look at from the perspective of "new software I adopt needs to be better than what I am currently using, not just pretty". Thunderbird holds on because it works and has a bunch of features. Ever talked to someone that is used to Outlook? All new email clients should strive towards these targets.

[thetribune]

+1 . Would love to see PGP support.

Became a paying customer hoping to support its development.

[josecanciani]

Just to increase visibility for this feature, I'd like to comment what I suppose is a very common use case today: I almost don't use personal email anymore, most notifications are handled in it's own apps now, so email is becoming obsolete very quickly. Where it's still used heavily is at work, and for work it's indispensable that signing -must have- and encryption -nice to have- are present, since companies require these security measures today.

PS: I would also support the development if needed!

Regards, Jose

[NgoHuy]

If you try old Nylas plugin, you must convert all coffee and cjsx script to jsx then install request in your mailspring.

[heywoodlh]

@NgoHuy have you done this already?

[NgoHuy]

I stuck in build Mailprings on Archlinux when I run npm start, error is GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed I will build and run on Debian tomorrow for double check.

[heywoodlh]

Awesome, thanks @NgoHuy! If you're able to get it to build successfully I think everyone would appreciate if you shared your modified code for the plugin.

[NgoHuy]

Sure, if I convert it successfully, I would like to share with others.

[NgoHuy]

I convert from cjsx to jsx, coffee to js, but got some error at runtime +_+ the tools I use is https://github.com/bugsnag/depercolator and https://github.com/decaffeinate/decaffeinate

[NgoHuy]

keybase.tar.gz I convert it successfully, please test it. I will clean up some code :D

[NgoHuy]

Some error on encrypt email, I will fix it

[thetechnick]

Hi @NgoHuy, good work!

Would you mind pushing your code into a git repository? This way it would be way easier to collaborate, than by sending tar's around.

[NgoHuy]

Yes, after clean some code, I will push to git repository at weekend.

[NgoHuy]

I push final code here, please test it https://github.com/NgoHuy/mailspring-keybase

[fazlerabbi37]

@NgoHuy would you kindly update your readme with how to install and how to use it? I can help you with installation instruction for both Linux and Mac by sending a PR if it is ok.

[valentt]

@NgoHuy would you kindly update your readme with how to install and how to use it? I can help you with installation instruction for both Linux and Mac by sending a PR if it is ok.

I'm also willing to help out write documentation, I have started this issue so please join me there - https://github.com/NgoHuy/mailspring-keybase/issues/3

[valentt]

I push final code here, please test it https://github.com/NgoHuy/mailspring-keybase

I have tested it but I'm not seeing anything in Mailspring. How should this plugin work?

[NgoHuy]

PR is welcome, bro please see https://github.com/NgoHuy/mailspring-keybase/issues/2 for more info

[mknapik]

I stuck in build Mailprings on Archlinux when I run npm start, error is GLib-GObject: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed I will build and run on Debian tomorrow for double check.

I build the app with no problem on macos but I run into the same issue on Arch. Did you manage to figure this out?