WinGPG (crap freeware)

Post details of freeware that are found to be not portable here. Posts in the submissions forum relating to freeware found to be not portable should also be moved here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

WinGPG (crap freeware)

#1 Post by webfork »

NOTE: After a few tests now, it's just not a real contender for either Windows public key encryption or the portable database.

---

Still, I'm very excited to see this and hope the next release takes a solid step forward.

Image

http://scand.com/products/wingpg/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/E ... nGPG.shtml

EDIT 1: I was able to pull up the old settings as I hadn't cleared them off yet: it writes to \AppData

EDIT 2: The group behind this has been contacted on this point.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: WinGPG - system-tray public key security

#2 Post by webfork »

WinGPG update is out finally with portable versions for both 32 and 64 bit.

https://scand.com/products/wingpg/

Great news. I really liked the design of this program and hoping the minor bugs I described previously have been resolved. I also hope they get a github (or similar) page to transparently track issues.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6710
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: WinGPG - system-tray public key security

#3 Post by Midas »

Great news, indeed. Now on my testing q... 8)

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: WinGPG - system-tray public key security

#4 Post by webfork »

Short version: stay away. Many, many problems here.

1. I contacted the authors with a very basic request and got essentially a spam email.


2. I retested this program on Win7x86 and had a host of issues:

* Hot keys didn't work.
* Created a keypair, it forgot about them in the middle of testing.
* Tried to sign a file. It defaulted to files that ended in .GPG, which makes no sense.
* Signed a file without a .GPG file extension and it just encrypted it.
* The program gpg-agent.exe won't close after the program is closed


3. Portability: Not portable. Writes keys locally but writes settings to the registry.


Barring something unexpected, this will be the last time I post about this particular program or anything else from "Scand". It's a shame too because there's not much in the way of portable GPG freeware. GPG4USB is getting older and may not be compatible with newer versions.

TP109
Posts: 571
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Midwestern US

Re: WinGPG (crap freeware)

#5 Post by TP109 »

Midas wrote:Short version: stay away. Many, many problems here.
Wow. Good to know about this. Thanks

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6710
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: WinGPG (crap freeware)

#6 Post by Midas »

Sad. :cry:

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: WinGPG (crap freeware)

#7 Post by webfork »

Midas wrote:Sad. :cry:
Agreed. I think really the only way forward on this is to work with the official GPG team on their portable option. I don't know that I'll have bandwidth to take that on as a project, but maybe I can retest their system and nag the developers a bit.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6710
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: WinGPG (crap freeware)

#8 Post by Midas »

If you keep us posted, we might even be able to weigh in a little... :?

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: WinGPG (crap freeware)

#9 Post by webfork »

Update here: Still not worth the time. Probably won't come back to re-test this one.

* Encrypt clipboard converts standard ascii text into what look to be Mandarin characters.
* No drag-and-drop option
* Hotkeys just pull up the main window
* No controls for password caching, meaning if you idle too long the program requests you re-enter your password

---

Other notes:

I revisited this program as it appears to still be in development. I was worried that some of the included GPG component tools appeared to be badly out of date but a VirusTotal check suggests they're very recent (e.g. GPG.EXE is actually from November of this year https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/de0 ... 308bc679e9)

Steps: download the portable version (32 or 64 they're both included) and launch either x86\WinGPG.exe or x64\WinGPG.exe

Status: Still not portable. Writes settings to registry: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Scand\WinGPG\HotKeys

https://scand.com/products/wingpg/
https://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE- ... able.shtml

Image

Post Reply