[Cryptography] Recommendations in lieu of short AES passphrases

[Kent Borg]

On 09/18/2016 04:26 PM, John Denker wrote:
> Some of the smartest, most security-conscious folks I know use 
> password managers. 

I do think it is possible to use an electronic password manager, but I 
also think it is really hard to do well, and really risky for a normal 
person to attempt. One false move, and while you sleep a Russian mobster 
on the other side of the planet can destroy you.

In contrast, physically writing down passwords is pretty simple, and 
hard to mess up on an invisible technicality. We are pretty familiar 
with physically protecting things--far better than we are with 
protecting data. A written record isn't as flashy, but it has an attack 
surface that is tiny, very local, something a normal person has 
experience with, something it is possible for a regular person to judge 
and reason about. For those among us who long ago learned they can't go 
a week without losing a wallet or car keys, they might then also figure 
out some important passwords should not be carried around on a daily 
basis, either. By being in the physical domain, these are all things 
normal people can reason about.

But whether some particular buzzword-compliant password manager that has 
a 4-star rating is a good or bad choice, because it does or does not use 
a good ZK design, is not something normals can judge.


Certainly there is the argument that users are bad about passwords, 
because they clearly are! But this isn't going to be fixed with some 
magic technical solution.

We expect regular people to have some horse sense to avoid getting 
ripped off in the physical world (we start teaching how as toddlers), 
but in virtual worlds techies like to throw up their hands, chant 2fa, 
and tell us to start ordering retina scanners.

People are going to have to learn a little. No way around it. I don't 
think Joe Average needs to become a STEM wizard (I hate that fad), but I 
do think Joe has to learn a little. Starting with "don't recycle 
passwords", "write them down", and some diceware-style advice for how to 
choose decent passwords.

I don't think that is a horribly ambitious idea, I don't see any simpler 
approaches, and I think it would accomplish a lot.


-kb