It’s the first idea I had when it came to making sure login on my server is secure. Instead of having a small password that relies on my fallinble memory and may be also guessed in a not-completely-rodiculous amount of time.
Meanwhile a fairly small file, something like a 512 byte “user.key”, to be uploaded along with your username, or even just having your username built-in, seems much safer.
I wanted to do some math but I could only find limited calculators for doing calculations with such big numbers so have the amount of possible combinations the file may have:
256^512
1,044,388,881,413,152,506,691,752,710,716,624,382,579,964,249,047,383,780,384,233,483,283,953,907,971,557,456,848,826,811,934,997,558,340,890,106,714,439,262,837,987,573,438,185,793,607,263,236,087,851,365,277,945,956,976,543,709,998,340,361,590,134,383,718,314,428,070,011,855,946,226,376,318,839,397,712,745,672,334,684,344,586,617,496,807,908,705,803,704,071,284,048,740,118,609,114,467,977,783,598,029,006,686,938,976,881,787,785,946,905,630,190,260,940,599,579,453,432,823,469,303,026,696,443,059,025,015,972,399,867,714,215,541,693,835,559,885,291,486,318,237,914,434,496,734,087,811,872,639,496,475,100,189,041,349,008,417,061,675,093,668,333,850,551,032,972,088,269,550,769,983,616,369,411,933,015,213,796,825,837,188,091,833,656,751,221,318,492,846,368,125,550,225,998,300,412,344,784,862,595,674,492,194,617,023,806,505,913,245,610,825,731,835,380,087,608,622,102,834,270,197,698,202,313,169,017,678,006,675,195,485,079,921,636,419,370,285,375,124,784,014,907,159,135,459,982,790,513,399,611,551,794,271,106,831,134,090,584,272,884,279,791,554,849,782,954,323,534,517,065,223,269,061,394,905,987,693,002,122,963,395,687,782,878,948,440,616,007,412,945,674,919,823,050,571,642,377,154,816,321,380,631,045,902,916,136,926,708,342,856,440,730,447,899,971,901,781,465,763,473,223,850,267,253,059,899,795,996,090,799,469,201,774,624,817,718,449,867,455,659,250,178,329,070,473,119,433,165,550,807,568,221,846,571,746,373,296,884,912,819,520,317,457,002,440,926,616,910,874,148,385,078,411,929,804,522,981,857,338,977,648,103,126,085,903,001,302,413,467,189,726,673,216,491,511,131,602,920,781,738,033,436,090,243,804,708,340,403,154,190,336
What am I missing? I assume I’m missing something, because the idea of something like this going over a lot of smart programmers and developers’ heads does not sound right
I’m an admin and using an SSH key is the most common way we log into servers.
Also the most common way I log in to self-hosted servers.
SSH keys are so nice
I’ve got mine hooked into my password manager so it’s as easy as scanning my fingerprint to use (password manager locks on sleep and after a timeout).
What do you do when you need to change your fingerprints?
I have 9 backups.
After that I have to resort to crime and cryogenics.
I keep silicon based backup fingerprints in my lockbox at the credit union.