PGP Key Encryption and EM Client with Hide my Email from Icloud Plus

1

I just wanted to talk or discuss the possibility to use some of the Icloud Plus Features like hide my Email with Em Client with PGP Encrypted Messages. It would be cool to add some of the icloud plus features in Em Client.

Hide my Email from Icloud Plus generates random Email Addresses to hide and protect for example from hacking your “normal” email address or stalking or whatever. If someone doesn’t know your real mail it can’t be hacked. Yahoo for example is a disaster…

If you want to use PGP encrypted messages with hide my email this combination is not working in Em Client currently with these randomly generated mail addresses. Other mail programs for example Outlook with the GPol Plugin from gpg4win or IPG mail in Ios let you choose automatically which key you want to use for sending encrypted messages. In Em Client there is no option to choose manually. Em Client automatically chooses the PGP which belongs to the recipients mail address.

For example my normal mail address:

hello123(ÄT)test(Point)de

The Recipients mail address:

receiver123(ÄT)test(POINT)de ← PGP Key created from this mail address

So if I want to send an encrypted Email to receiver123(ÄT)test(POINT)de the person gives me the PGP key which the person owns.

Icloud Plus generates a random email address for me so that I am able to hide my normal address and all messages will be forwarded. There is no direct communication anymore between the two addresses above.

For example:

chair.beans(ÄT)icloud(POINT)com instead of hello123(ÄT)test(POINT)de given to receiver123(ÄT)test(POINT)de

If I want to send an email to receiver123(ÄT)test(POINT)de through Icloud Plus with the randomly generated mail address Icloud gives me an email address to forward the message

for example something like this:

receiver123_at_test_de_tgdnc55c6v467s59_1fyt6037(ÄT)icloud.com

These mail addresses are changed sometimes. I still have the same forwarding email address for about 6 months so not every week or day. They last pretty long.

Em Client not understands that receiver123_at_test_de_tgdnc55c6v467s59_1fyt6037(ÄT)icloud.com is the same Person or recipient like receiver123(ÄT)test(POINT)de and can not use the PGP Key for encryption.

I mean I can also use a text editor write anything encrypt it with the PGP key and just send it as attachment then it is also working and encrypted. But I mean isn’t it still possible doing this a bit easier in Em Client?

Can anyone help me or give me a solution for this? The Em Keybook is also still something which looks like a beta. Not possible to upload any keys which are public.

These weird looking (ÄT) and (POINT) is because I get a error message when posting.

Best regards
Christian

1 Like
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Hi and happy New Year, I would like to express support for your request. I also use PGP and I would like to create keys for the Hide My Mail aliases and use them with emClient.

Before anything else though, emClient needs to acquire support for the aliases to begin with. I am presently unable to send Emails using a HMM alias. So, this would be the first request. Support for PGP on these Aliases the second.

[SMTP] Cannot send message (Sending email “Re: [ …s” failed with error: ‘From’ field address ‘xyz_at_icloud.com’ not accepted due to the following reason:
"5.7.0 From address is not one of your addresses
")

Cheers

3

Thank you so much for your answer and support.

If I would know how to code this I would do support for pgp on hide my email aliasses from icloud plus. So because the sender mail and hide my email is different pgp encryption is not working and everyone can read the content of the mail.

This would be a very great feature in em client in 2025. the em client developer team rejected my query due to security reasons but this definitely not true.

Best regards
Christian Wolf

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:+1:

5

Whatever the reason… I believe the issue with Hide My Mail is that it is not intended for email communication on a day to day basis in the FROM field. It serves for login, registration confirmation, mailing lists etc… This unlike 1 of the 5 permitted actual aliases in iCloud+. With the aliases it should be possible to what you tried. There is a config menu in the app for aliases.

6

The communication in the FROM field is working in EM Client. I use Em Client with a lot of ICloud Hide My Email Aliases on a „day to day basis“ so normal everyday.

The only this thing which is not working is the creation of a pgp key or the confirmation that the pgp key is „legit“ for an hide my email iCloud alias email address. Because em client doesn‘t allow a different sender email than the pgp key is created for. This is only a technical problem which can be solved by the developers. And they not want to do this cause of the risk of spoofing (attacks).

When the internet was created or new everybody or at least a lot of people knew how to fake or change or spoof a sender mail address. But I think the risk of sending unencrypted mails everybody can read is a bigger problem than this.

7

But I think the risk of sending unencrypted mails everybody can read is a bigger problem than this.

Absolutely… though 99.9% of the population don’t realize this.

I get a “From address is not one of your addresses” error when I use a HMM address… Hence I thought it’s because emclient doesnt support HMM altogether. I need to check what I’m doing wrong.

A real shame PGP is not an established global standard in Email clients with certificate management easy to understand and do… but thats another matter.