[Cryptography] password fatigue; was: Lastpass

[Michael Kjörling]

On 18 Jun 2015 09:21 -0600, from gdr at gno.org (Devin Reade):
> I would love to see a minimal piece of hardware, no bigger than a
> modern phone, with a screen and real keys (think Blackberry), with
> no cellular hardware and, if it has 802.11 hardware at all, has a
> physical switch to disable it.  An open-spec piece of hardware that
> is able to run a verifiable piece of software like OpenBSD.  Something
> that could go to fully-off to running in some small number of seconds,
> and that didn't lose data when the batteries are exhausted.  (The Palm
> device would lose everything if you didn't keep it charged; that was
> it's biggest problem.)
> 
> The OpenPandora <http://boards.openpandora.org/page/homepage.html>
> seems a step in the right direction, except that it's quite a bit
> larger (like a Nintendo 3DS rather than a phone).  Good to throw in
> a briefcase or backpack, not so much for a pocket.

If we are dreaming up new (exterior) hardware designs anyway, then why
not make it such that it has a USB port (allowing any old USB cable to
connect it to a computer), presents itself to the host as a HID device
acting as a keyboard (much like a Yubikey does) and has a physically
triggered action to send data selected in its software to the host?
You'd have to solve synchronization in a secure manner, but that's a
problem with all of these types of devices. Bonus points if it allows
the connection of an external keyboard to it; try hooking up a Yubikey
to this device and using that for a part of your master password.

I'm thinking a simple password manager UI where you indicate in the
software to for example "send password", then press this physical
button on the device and the software transmits the password for the
current account _as if you had typed it on a keyboard_.

Throw in keyboard layout selection for the output and it seems like
you have something that could be made reasonably small (even with a
physical keyboard on the device, certainly small enough to fit in a
reasonably-sized pocket) _and_ can reasonably be known to not leak
data (because you can trivially have it input a password into a text
editor, for example, and verify that it does what it should; also, it
requires both being plugged into a computer _and_ physical action on
part of the owner to legitimately transmit anything).

Any takers?

-- 
Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael at kjorling.se
OpenPGP B501AC6429EF4514 https://michael.kjorling.se/public-keys/pgp
                 “People who think they know everything really annoy
                 those of us who know we don’t.” (Bjarne Stroustrup)