7 ms·

I have the appropriate tarsnap key printed out and stored in a physical location known to my loved ones. They're not particularly keen on the idea of having to

I have the appropriate tarsnap key printed out and stored in a physical location known to my loved ones. They're not particularly keen on the idea of having to type in two pages of private key but as I point out, it's both (a) a good opportunity to learn about OCR and (b) not my problem.

stavros 4y ago
OCR doesn't help when you have to find the wrong character in two pages of random stuff. QR codes are your friend.
- mbreese 4y ago
  I came to say the same. I’ve had long encryptions keys printed out as QR codes and it works surprisingly well. You can still have the text of the key, but the QR code makes it a much easier process. Especially in a situation where you won’t be around to help troubleshoot.
  - conductr 4y ago
    And whoever does help has the keys to the kingdom
    - mbreese 4y ago
      We’re talking about keys and accounts where the credentials (print outs) are stored securely. In my case, it was a safe deposit box. You’d have to expect that whomever is helping to manage that kind of transition is trustworthy. Or at least that the people left behind trust them.
- cperciva 4y ago
  That's why the Tarsnap key file format includes a checksum on each line, so tarsnap can tell you which line to look for the OCR (or typing) error on. When I was writing this code I wasn't sure if it would ever matter but figured "hey, why not..." -- but I've probably had a dozen emails since then from users thanking me for including those.
  - stavros 4y ago
    Oh nice, I didn't realize it was a custom format.
    - cperciva 4y ago
      It's base64, but with added checksums, yeah. There's very little that I use off-the-shelf in Tarsnap -- generally speaking I take existing standards and then make tweaks as needed to optimize for Tarsnap's use case. (Sometimes, as with scrypt, I decide that existing standards simply aren't any good and develop my own from the ground up.)
willis936 4y ago
Two pages is overkill for symmetric encryption.
Molomby 4y ago
I'd be worried any secrets that had been printed would persisted on the internal printer storage, eg. https://www.bitraser.com/article/innocuous-printer-can-leak-your-data.php https://www.bitraser.com/article/innocuous-printer-can-leak-...
- CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago
  Then go "Office Space" on it - Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!
CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago
That made me think of MC Frontalot's "Secrets From the Future" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPstXCqyus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPstXCqyus "by 2025 a children's Speak-and-Spell could crack it"
mperham 4y ago
You can literally copy and paste text out of an image on iOS these days. Your next of kin will be fine.

stavros 4y ago

OCR doesn't help when you have to find the wrong character in two pages of random stuff. QR codes are your friend.

mbreese 4y ago
I came to say the same. I’ve had long encryptions keys printed out as QR codes and it works surprisingly well. You can still have the text of the key, but the QR code makes it a much easier process. Especially in a situation where you won’t be around to help troubleshoot.
- conductr 4y ago
  And whoever does help has the keys to the kingdom
  - mbreese 4y ago
    We’re talking about keys and accounts where the credentials (print outs) are stored securely. In my case, it was a safe deposit box. You’d have to expect that whomever is helping to manage that kind of transition is trustworthy. Or at least that the people left behind trust them.
cperciva 4y ago
That's why the Tarsnap key file format includes a checksum on each line, so tarsnap can tell you which line to look for the OCR (or typing) error on. When I was writing this code I wasn't sure if it would ever matter but figured "hey, why not..." -- but I've probably had a dozen emails since then from users thanking me for including those.
- stavros 4y ago
  Oh nice, I didn't realize it was a custom format.
  - cperciva 4y ago
    It's base64, but with added checksums, yeah. There's very little that I use off-the-shelf in Tarsnap -- generally speaking I take existing standards and then make tweaks as needed to optimize for Tarsnap's use case. (Sometimes, as with scrypt, I decide that existing standards simply aren't any good and develop my own from the ground up.)

willis936 4y ago

Two pages is overkill for symmetric encryption.

Molomby 4y ago

I'd be worried any secrets that had been printed would persisted on the internal printer storage, eg. https://www.bitraser.com/article/innocuous-printer-can-leak-your-data.php https://www.bitraser.com/article/innocuous-printer-can-leak-...

CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago
Then go "Office Space" on it - Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!

CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago

That made me think of MC Frontalot's "Secrets From the Future" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPstXCqyus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPstXCqyus "by 2025 a children's Speak-and-Spell could crack it"

mperham 4y ago

You can literally copy and paste text out of an image on iOS these days. Your next of kin will be fine.