"You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key"

[pikajude]

Having just joined keybase and encrypted my first test message:

$ keybase encrypt -m "This is a secret message" joelteon > message
$ keybase decrypt message -o message.txt

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "keybase.io/joelteon <joelteon@keybase.io>"
2048-bit RSA key, ID 5C168495C8328D1E, created 2014-11-04
         (subkey on main key ID 4FB87AFD575DFF5D)

warn: [GNUPG:] ENC_TO 5C168495C8328D1E 1 0
warn: [GNUPG:] USERID_HINT 5C168495C8328D1E keybase.io/joelteon <joelteon@keybase.io>
warn: [GNUPG:] NEED_PASSPHRASE 5C168495C8328D1E 4FB87AFD575DFF5D 1 0
warn: gpg: cancelled by user
warn: [GNUPG:] MISSING_PASSPHRASE
warn: gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit RSA key, ID 5C168495C8328D1E, created 2014-11-04
warn:       "keybase.io/joelteon <joelteon@keybase.io>"
warn: gpg: public key decryption failed: Operation cancelled
warn: [GNUPG:] ERROR pkdecrypt_failed 99
warn: [GNUPG:] BEGIN_DECRYPTION
warn: [GNUPG:] DECRYPTION_FAILED
warn: gpg: decryption failed: No secret key
warn: [GNUPG:] END_DECRYPTION
error: `gpg` exited with code 2

[pathawks]

You cancelled decryption?

[pikajude]

How would I have done that?

[danieldavidson]

The only way I can reproduce this error is after executing keybase decrypt ..., manually closing the dialog that asks for my passphrase. Entering my passphrase into the dialog decrypts the message properly.

[pikajude]

Where is the dialog supposed to show up?

[danieldavidson]

Instead of

$ keybase encrypt -m "This is a secret message" joelteon > message
$ keybase decrypt message -o message.txt

try executing

$ keybase encrypt -m "This is a secret message" joelteon -o message
$ keybase decrypt message -o message.txt

What happens?

[pikajude]

Same as in the original post.

Something has changed after the original post (I don't know what). After it prints this:

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "keybase.io/joelteon <joelteon@keybase.io>"
2048-bit RSA key, ID 5C168495C8328D1E, created 2014-11-04
         (subkey on main key ID 4FB87AFD575DFF5D)

keybase hangs instead of telling me that I cancelled the decryption. This happens if I use either > message or -o message.

[pathawks]

What OS are you running? Have you previously installed any GPG tools?

[pikajude]

OSX. I have pinentry and all the gnupg2 executables in PATH, though I don't know what effect that will have.

[carwash]

I have what I think is the same problem, also on OS X with pinentry: when running keybase encrypt or keybase prove, keybase will tell me "You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for user: …" but will not then provide a prompt to enter the passphrase, instead hanging. (Using gpg directly prints the same message, but the prompt appears as expected and everything works.)

[JustinTArthur]

Keybase is currently incompatible with gpg2 due to the weird console dialog it employs. There is a workaround described in #110 that looks like this:

GPG_TTY=`tty` keybase decrypt message -o message.txt

[arkadiyt]

+1 also ran into this, and

GPG_TTY=`tty`

fixed it for me

[Videl]

Had an issue about this too, @arkadiyt's solution worked.

I'm on Linux Mint 17 'Qiana', 64-bit.

[sschaefer]

I had these symptoms, and GPG_TTY=$(tty) did not fix it for me.

Solution: gnome-keyring-daemon had started up when my laptop was connected to one DHCP server/subnet, but then later it switched to a different DHCP server/subnet. gnome-keyring-daemon had apparently memorized the former laptop IP address which was no longer available, and couldn't connect to the X11 server. Workaround: I logged out and back in, to get a clued-in gnome-keyring-daemon process.

[rrasouli]

I have had similar issue: I worked remotely on a VM which I copied the gpg key there I was connected via vncviewer, I couldn't commit and sign with gpg. Solution was: connect the VM via console, the gpg passphrase appeared then, after entering the passpharse on console screen, the sign with -S succeeded and it never asked for a passphrase

[camponez]

Ubuntu 16.04. I'm having this issue.

$ GPG_TTY=tty keybase decrypt message -o message.txt warn: [GNUPG:] ENC_TO C40D7FAD56A57304 1 0 warn: [GNUPG:] PINENTRY_LAUNCHED 12674 warn: gpg: encrypted with 4096-bit RSA key, ID XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, created 2014-01-17 warn: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" warn: gpg: public key decryption failed: Operation cancelled warn: [GNUPG:] ERROR pkdecrypt_failed 83886179 warn: [GNUPG:] BEGIN_DECRYPTION warn: [GNUPG:] DECRYPTION_FAILED warn: gpg: decryption failed: No secret key warn: [GNUPG:] END_DECRYPTION error: gpg exited with code 2

Fixed:

I had to add allow-loopback-pinentry to my ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf and restart gpg-agent (kill-all gpg-agent)

[ghost]

Using Mail app and GPG Keychain on macOS with Pinentry Mac and after 5 months of use suddenly I start seeing this dialog takeover my repeatedly screen (with focus).

The funny part is the above dialog won't accept the password I recorded for the account 5 months ago. Dialog won't even tell me if password is valid or not after entry and pressing return. It just keeps popping up and disrupting me while Mail is open. Thankfully I paid for Protonmail and use the Protonmail Bridge now which has worked well so far.

[maxtaco]

@jhabdas this likely has nothing to do with Keybase