Making art with SSH key randomart

https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/ssh-randomart-how-does-it-work-art

by jgrahamc • 8 years ago

113 11 8 years ago

blog.benjojo.co.uk

settrans• 8 years ago

Very cool; now all we need is a proof-of-work formalization to base a cryptocurrency on. Artcoin?

airstrike• 8 years ago

Go for it! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16958797

okwme3• 8 years ago

https://clovers.network

jonnydubowsky• 8 years ago

Clovers is awesome!

ktpsns• 8 years ago

I just thought this would be an argument why "textual" fingerprints like

   SHA256:s6N0OwlTDKjDez98kZRwUGZbTYaQUArv+EYC6sigFwA ben@eshwil

are superior to the "visualized" fingerprints: They are harder to imitate by an attacker.

However, I realized this argument is invalid: If you -- as a human -- compare two fingerprints by just looking at parts of the texts/image, you haven't done a full verification and thus are vulnerable. Therefore, in principle, the kind of key authentification how it is done in modern smartphone messengers (making a photo of a visual key (encoded in a QR code or similar) where the smartphone then verifies every single bit) is the right way to go when it comes to fingerprint verification. Humans are too impatient and too inaccurate for this job.

floatrock• 8 years ago

In crypto, you can dedicate a modest amount of computing power to get a "vanity address" -- hash enough wallet keys and you get an address that starts with 4 or 5 letters of your choosing.

This is basically the same thing for ssh keys... get something that vaguely looks like some shape you desire.

Neat!

lifeisstillgood• 8 years ago

I think I just saw a side business flash past - domain squatting / personalised number plates on the blockchain...

it's actually worth a try ...

okwme3• 8 years ago

https://blog.ricmoo.com/contract-addresses-549074919ec8 https://github.com/ricmoo/vanity-contract

RpFLCL• 8 years ago

I went into this expecting to see a bunch of precompiled randomarts manually tiled to create a composite picture.

I was not expecting to learn the simple rules that underpin how randomart is generated for a hash and then to see the author discover hashes that roughly match the goal.

Happily surprised! Very cool to read.

villasv• 8 years ago

"With that in mind though, we can brute force similar keys"

You mean actually brute force key generations until you get what you want? In that case, how's anything previous in the article worth anything?

The drunken bishop article actually performs some smart brute force searches. Maybe the author is doing something similar?

Making art with SSH key randomart

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