5 ms·

Making art with SSH key randomart

113 points by jgrahamc 9y ago

villasv 9y ago
"With that in mind though, we can brute force similar keys" You mean actually brute force key generations until you get what you want? In that case, how's anything previous in the article worth anything? The drunken bishop article actually performs some smart brute force searches. Maybe the author is doing something similar?
settrans 9y ago
Very cool; now all we need is a proof-of-work formalization to base a cryptocurrency on. Artcoin?
- airstrike 9y ago
  Go for it! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16958797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16958797
- okwme 9y ago
  https://clovers.network https://clovers.network
  - jonnydubowsky 9y ago
    Clovers is awesome!
    - okwme 9y ago
      Thanks :: ) stay tuned for updates!
ktpsns 9y ago
I just thought this would be an argument why "textual" fingerprints like SHA256:s6N0OwlTDKjDez98kZRwUGZbTYaQUArv+EYC6sigFwA ben@eshwil are superior to the "visualized" fingerprints: They are harder to imitate by an attacker. However, I realized this argument is invalid: If you -- as a human -- compare two fingerprints by just looking at parts of the texts/image, you haven't done a full verification and thus are vulnerable. Therefore, in principle, the kind of key authentification how it is done in modern smartphone messengers (making a photo of a visual key (encoded in a QR code or similar) where the smartphone then verifies every single bit) is the right way to go when it comes to fingerprint verification. Humans are too impatient and too inaccurate for this job.
floatrock 9y ago
In crypto, you can dedicate a modest amount of computing power to get a "vanity address" -- hash enough wallet keys and you get an address that starts with 4 or 5 letters of your choosing. This is basically the same thing for ssh keys... get something that vaguely looks like some shape you desire. Neat!
- lifeisstillgood 9y ago
  I think I just saw a side business flash past - domain squatting / personalised number plates on the blockchain... it's actually worth a try ...
  - okwme 9y ago
    https://blog.ricmoo.com/contract-addresses-549074919ec8 https://blog.ricmoo.com/contract-addresses-549074919ec8 https://github.com/ricmoo/vanity-contract https://github.com/ricmoo/vanity-contract
RpFLCL 9y ago
I went into this expecting to see a bunch of precompiled randomarts manually tiled to create a composite picture. I was not expecting to learn the simple rules that underpin how randomart is generated for a hash and then to see the author discover hashes that roughly match the goal. Happily surprised! Very cool to read.

113 points by jgrahamc 9y ago

"With that in mind though, we can brute force similar keys" You mean actually brute force key generations until you get what you want? In that case, how's anything previous in the article worth anything? The drunken bishop article actually performs some smart brute force searches. Maybe the author is doing something similar?

settrans 9y ago

Very cool; now all we need is a proof-of-work formalization to base a cryptocurrency on. Artcoin?

airstrike 9y ago
Go for it! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16958797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16958797
okwme 9y ago
https://clovers.network https://clovers.network
- jonnydubowsky 9y ago
  Clovers is awesome!
  - okwme 9y ago
    Thanks :: ) stay tuned for updates!

ktpsns 9y ago

I just thought this would be an argument why "textual" fingerprints like SHA256:s6N0OwlTDKjDez98kZRwUGZbTYaQUArv+EYC6sigFwA ben@eshwil are superior to the "visualized" fingerprints: They are harder to imitate by an attacker. However, I realized this argument is invalid: If you -- as a human -- compare two fingerprints by just looking at parts of the texts/image, you haven't done a full verification and thus are vulnerable. Therefore, in principle, the kind of key authentification how it is done in modern smartphone messengers (making a photo of a visual key (encoded in a QR code or similar) where the smartphone then verifies every single bit) is the right way to go when it comes to fingerprint verification. Humans are too impatient and too inaccurate for this job.

floatrock 9y ago

In crypto, you can dedicate a modest amount of computing power to get a "vanity address" -- hash enough wallet keys and you get an address that starts with 4 or 5 letters of your choosing. This is basically the same thing for ssh keys... get something that vaguely looks like some shape you desire. Neat!

lifeisstillgood 9y ago
I think I just saw a side business flash past - domain squatting / personalised number plates on the blockchain... it's actually worth a try ...
- okwme 9y ago
  https://blog.ricmoo.com/contract-addresses-549074919ec8 https://blog.ricmoo.com/contract-addresses-549074919ec8 https://github.com/ricmoo/vanity-contract https://github.com/ricmoo/vanity-contract

RpFLCL 9y ago

I went into this expecting to see a bunch of precompiled randomarts manually tiled to create a composite picture. I was not expecting to learn the simple rules that underpin how randomart is generated for a hash and then to see the author discover hashes that roughly match the goal. Happily surprised! Very cool to read.