Any plans to support RTF (Html-based) formation for PGP?

General
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Hello all:

As u all know: We’re tending to use HTML-based mails instead of desktop app such as “Outlook”……ect. So are there any plans to support HTML-based mails on web (until now PGP only supports plain texts).

Considering we’ve lsome risks and problems, as we’ve found at: EFAIL. Maybe Mailvelope: PGP for Gmail & Webmail looks fine with me, it would be better if it supported RTF formation letter as a plug-in for almost all the web-based mailboxes.

What do u think of it?

2

Hi @SEWeiTung,

are there any plans to support HTML-based mails on web (until now PGP only supports plain texts).

OpenPGP/MIME allows for contents in (almost) any MIME type, so HTML email can be send already, just like rich-text.

But you were asking for web email clients, I think. There are technical problems with this approach:

  1. A general plugin for web client can only work with MIME emails if the backend supports access to the structure of the emails (or the raw email itself). If gmail for example does not offer this, a component like Mailvelope cannot handle attachments and other contents correctly.
  2. A display as HTML would need to be checked for security problems both for privacy, but also for Cross-Side-Request-Forgery.

To related remarks:

as we’ve found at: EFAIL

See the Gpg4win/GnuPG statements about this research, it was not as probablematic as widely reported:

Given that I like https://useplaintext.email/ and simple data formats (Minimalistic Data Format – Open Standards - FSFE) , I’d appreciate if someone would develop a basic format for expressing more structure in emails. I guess that Markdown GH flavour would be a candidate. However it would need to get global traction and this wil be the hard part. :wink:

Regards,
Bernhard

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Sorry to correct it: In fact the “plugin” is NOT a REAL plugin nested for Google or a specific kind of web mail, but just a translator converting what you’ve written into its textbox and then translate it into a snippet of encrypted text contents :slight_smile:

For more, plz see: FAQ | Mailvelope | What to do if the mailbox isn’t in the supported list?

Yes, I also used to think about it, but……even if we’ve implemented it but other mailboxes doesn’t support it…Maybe we need a Markdown Editor for web mailboxes.
But the “Plugin” mailbox is also a good idea, even if it can work with your product (See : FAQ | Mailvelope).
That what makes me feel surprised.

Is this also your product based on web?

PS：Maybe you can have a try by downloading it, working with the loal GnuPG to write emails directly out of Outlook :smiley:

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In fact the “plugin” is NOT a REAL plugin nested for Google or a specific kind of web mail, but just a translator converting what you’ve written into its textbox and then translate it into a snippet of encrypted text contents

I know, though Mailvelope with its API it can do more and could extend it in principle to full MIME handling (if the web mailers offer the access to the structure of the mails).

Yes, you can use GnuPG as crypto backend for Mailvelope, though it maybe a little hard to setup.

working with the loal GnuPG to write emails directly out of Outlook

(For a desktop Outlook, you’ve certainly seen GpgOL which comes with Gpg4win and is an add-in for Outlook using GnuPG as backend. :wink: )