CFMAIL send encrypted email using a PKI instead of .p7c file

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 27, 2018
1 reply
1086 views

Hello, all,

Is it possible to use CFMAIL to send an encrypted email using a PKI resource instead of a .p7c cert file?

Looking at the help docs for CFMAIL, you have to have a local copy of the receiver's certificate, and include the path/file as one of the attributes.

Seeing as how email clients like Outlook can reach out to a PKI to encrypt an email, can CFMAIL do the same??

V/r,

^ _ ^

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Dave Watts

Outlook or Thunderbird or anything else you double-click on to activate do run as a user account - whichever user double-clicked on them in the first place. That's all it means to run as a user account. Applications that run in userspace can do things that services cannot, in general. Keep in mind to do this, your mail client is doing a lot more than sending an email, which is all that CFMAIL is doing. Your mail client is going out and getting information from somewhere.

There is certainly no harm in filing a suggestion. I don't know how quickly Adobe will get around to adding that as a feature, though.

Dave Watts, Fig Leaf Software

D

Dave Watts

Community Expert

My guess is, probably not. CF doesn't even run as a user account most of the time, and won't have access to a CAC card reader when it runs. But, if you run CF as a user account and can that user account can access the contents of a CAC card reader using a directory path (I don't know enough about that to know one way or the other) you might be able to do it.

Dave Watts, Fig Leaf Software

Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC

WolfShadeAuthor

Legend

Hi, Dave,

It's my understanding that when an email client (like Outlook, or Thunderbird) sends an encrypted email, the client reaches out to a PKI to get the recipient's public key which it then uses to encrypt the message. The receiving email client then uses the recipient's private key to decrypt the message. AFAIK, the CAC is not utilised for this process.

I can see how the way it currently is set up, CFMAIL can use a local copy of the public key. But that means that 1) the developer has to first GET a copy of the public key and store it locally, and 2) if that key ever changes, the developer then has to get the new public key to keep things working smoothly.

Now, I get that CF doesn't run as a user account, but then neither do Outlook or Thunderbird. Yet Outlook and Thunderbird can still access the PKI and do a search for the user email address to get the public key. CF _should_ be able to do that, as well.

Should I file a suggestion on Tracker? Will that make a difference?

As always, thank you for your time.

V/r,

^ _ ^

D

Dave Watts

Correct answer

Community Expert

Outlook or Thunderbird or anything else you double-click on to activate do run as a user account - whichever user double-clicked on them in the first place. That's all it means to run as a user account. Applications that run in userspace can do things that services cannot, in general. Keep in mind to do this, your mail client is doing a lot more than sending an email, which is all that CFMAIL is doing. Your mail client is going out and getting information from somewhere.

There is certainly no harm in filing a suggestion. I don't know how quickly Adobe will get around to adding that as a feature, though.

Dave Watts, Fig Leaf Software

Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded