[Gpg4win-users-en] gpg4win: cannot enter passphrase when creating key

[Alexander Kriegisch]

Hi community.

I have a fresh installation
  - of gpg4win 2.2.1
  - on Windows XP Pro SP3 (German).

First I tried the vanilla version (only GnuPG command line), then later the full package with Kleopatra. The result is always the same: I cannot create a new key pair because somehow the passphrase is not captured correctly. On the command line the following happens:
  - Run cmd.exe
  - gpg --gen-key
  - The whole assistant works nicely until I get to the part where I
    should enter my passphrase. Now nothing happens, I see no dots or
    asterisks when entering the passphrase. I can enter it as many times
    as I want to, the passphrase is not captured. I can only stop the
    process via Ctrl-C. Then the passphrase is written to the console
    as CLEAR TEXT(!) and treated as if I entered it as a command. This
    is a security nightmare. I cannot understand how something like this
    can ever pass a test unnoticed.

By the way, the same problem was reported long ago already, but nothing happened. See this thread:
http://lists.wald.intevation.org/pipermail/gpg4win-users-en/2009-August/000349.html

Regards
-- 
Alexander Kriegisch