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Why are some signatures with an ELG-E key valid?

April 26, 2017ELG key signatures valid

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Why are some signatures with an ELG-E key valid?

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These are ElGamal keys generated by GnuPG in v3 (RFC 1991) packets. The OpenPGP draft later changed the algorithm identifier for ElGamal keys which are usable for signatures and encryption from 16 to 20. GnuPG now uses 20 when it generates new ElGamal keys but still accepts 16 (which is according to OpenPGP “encryption only”) if this key is in a v3 packet. GnuPG is the only program which had used these v3 ElGamal keys – so this assumption is quite safe.