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There have been times in the past where we took something moderately simple (random number generation once you've got a good entropy source; digital signatures)

There have been times in the past where we took something moderately simple (random number generation once you've got a good entropy source; digital signatures) and turned them into a monster (Dual-EC DRBG; ECDSA). It turns out those were bad ideas. The more I read about passkeys, the more I feel we're creating a new monster here. I'm just glad there's no "alg:none" option included. If you have a device that can store and sign with resident keys for a private/public key infrastructure, I don't see why we need all the extra complexity unless you want to charge everyone $4.99/mo for a key management SaaS, or force the last remaining Win11 users who log in with a local account onto Microsoft Accounts and Windows Hello (which I understand is the only way to get passkeys in edge without third-party software or devices).

jmakov 2y ago
Um.. isn't today recommended to use ecdsa for ssh keys?
- red_admiral 2y ago
  I personally recommend EdDSA - just one letter difference, but a very big one under the hood! (If you're using `-t ed25519` then you're using EdDSA.) EDIT: Github agrees with me: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-gith... they recommend EdDSA/ed25519 as first option, and RSA as fallback. ECDSA is not in the list at all. EDIT2: gitlab (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/ssh.html https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/ssh.html) also recommends ed25519 (which uses EdDSA for signatures). They'll grudgingly let you use ECDSA but point you to https://leanpub.com/gocrypto/read#leanpub-auto-ecdsa https://leanpub.com/gocrypto/read#leanpub-auto-ecdsa for a lecture on why it's a bad choice; there are actually more problems with it than the ones covered on that page that would be far harder to fix.
  - jmakov 2y ago
    Thank you for that and the linked resources, makes more sense now!

jmakov 2y ago

Um.. isn't today recommended to use ecdsa for ssh keys?

red_admiral 2y ago
I personally recommend EdDSA - just one letter difference, but a very big one under the hood! (If you're using `-t ed25519` then you're using EdDSA.) EDIT: Github agrees with me: https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-gith... they recommend EdDSA/ed25519 as first option, and RSA as fallback. ECDSA is not in the list at all. EDIT2: gitlab (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/ssh.html https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/ssh.html) also recommends ed25519 (which uses EdDSA for signatures). They'll grudgingly let you use ECDSA but point you to https://leanpub.com/gocrypto/read#leanpub-auto-ecdsa https://leanpub.com/gocrypto/read#leanpub-auto-ecdsa for a lecture on why it's a bad choice; there are actually more problems with it than the ones covered on that page that would be far harder to fix.
- jmakov 2y ago
  Thank you for that and the linked resources, makes more sense now!