This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

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

  • 3 majibu
  • 1 ana tatizo hili
  • 19 views
  • Last reply by Stans

more options

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.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (3)

more options

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.

more options

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

more options

Suluhisho teule

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.