Re: "less" and "gpg" question

[Markus Schönhaber]

19.03.21, 19:19 +0100, ToddAndMargo via users:
> I encrypted a file with
>       gpg --symmetric foobar.txt
>
> It created foobar.txt.gpg file as expected
> and I DID NOT tell it to store the passphrase.
> $ cat foobar.txt.gpg
>
> clearly showed a binary file.
>
> When I ran
>     $less foobar.txt.gpg
>
> it showed me the recovered file without encryption
> and DID NOT ask me for a passphrase.
>
> When I renamed the foobar.txt.gpg to foobar.txt
> and ran "less" on it, now I get a binary file.
> renaming it back to gpg and now it gets decrypted
> again.
>
> HOW DID LESS figure out my key and decrypt my file?

It didn't. Your gpg agent (likely gnome-keyring-daemon or similar) told
it the passphrase.

less uses
/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh
for pre-processing the files it is told to open.