AA>> So, it seems that *just* having the private key block
 AA>> (without also knowing the passphrase) is not very useful
 AA>> to anyone.

 WvV> Some people save their private key without a password, for
 WvV> easy usage.

Easy, but very unwise.  Otherwise, what's the point?  Yeah..  
some people deserve to be compromised, I guess.

 WvV> Sometimes you "need" to save it without a
 WvV> password when you need to use it from automated scripts.

Scripting..  never thought of that. But I seem to recall that  
there are ways to pass the passphrase via a variable or  
something which would be better than having no passphrase at  
all.

 WvV> And when a key has a simple password, it would be possible
 WvV> to brute force finding the password...

I wish I could remember what I used for:

pub   512R/246249F7 1994-02-16
 Fingerprint=BC 1B B6 D5 15 AC F1 D4  F2 B4 0F A2 D6 31 7F 53

I'm pretty sure that's me as "abolins" when you do a key search.

I know that I have the private key stored on a 3.5" diskette -  
somewhere.  I used pgp to email TODO lists to myself from home  
to work and back.  I don't think I could brute force the secret  
if I tried.  It was a modified latvian phrase. The key is what  
did I do to tweak the phrase?
--
  ../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.49