Timeline for Tool for public key cryptography where password is the private key?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Apr 5, 2013 at 19:14 | comment | added | Owen Orwell | @ThomasPornin Would deterministically generating the private key from a password be more secure if using a key derivation function, such as PBKDF2 using a fixed salt? Or perhaps using some other deterministic way of deriving a more secure key from the password? | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 22:58 | comment | added | user | @DavidWachtfogel I agree, they are as secure. Actually people often have a weak password (or none) protecting the private key file, as they don't plan for when attacker gets it, so maybe a password being directly the private key would make them choose something strong. However, we are drifting off-topic, as the question wasn't about how secure or advisable the proposal is, but simply how to implement it. | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 21:10 | comment | added | David Wachtfogel | @user wrote "If private key is in the file, more copies in more locations increases probability that an attacker will get it." If these copies of the private key are encrypted with a symmetric key based on your password then they are as secure as your password. | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 20:06 | comment | added | user | @ThomasPornin I am aware of problems with weak passwords, and I would choose a strong one. | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 19:03 | comment | added | Thomas Pornin | @user: a password fits in a human brain; this makes it weak against dictionary attacks. A RSA key is a big mathematical objects which is wide enough to defeat such brute force (by a very large margin). | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 17:33 | comment | added | user | I'm in one of those scenarios where I don't want to ever share the data, and if I'm hit by the bus, I don't want anybody to unlock my backups, including people who would get physical access to my computers after I'm gone (having private key in a file would only help them). | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 17:25 | comment | added | user | If private key is in the file, more copies in more locations increases probability that an attacker will get it. | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 17:21 | comment | added | user | I don't agree with your brute-force-attack-drawback. The very same thing can be done with usual private-key. How is guessing my decryption password different than guessing my private key? | |
| Sep 29, 2012 at 13:20 | history | answered | Thomas Pornin | CC BY-SA 3.0 |