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Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

eljojo.github.io

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Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#101

Post by rustyhancock »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #66
ses1984 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another solution is to engrave your secret on something that’s stable up to household fire temperatures.

A real innovation from the Bitcoin world! There are several physical password store systems that they have suggested for this kind of use case. The simplest is basically using a nail to punch out a password onto a piece of sheet metal.

Additionally hardware wallets which can use a seed to generate huge variety of keys.

Including AGE keys (so you can encrypt arbitrary data), SSH keys, FIDO2 and passkeys.

Additionally you might want to store a hardware wallet in a deposit box instead of the seed (if you trust the security model).

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#102

Post by Terr_ »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #66
ses1984 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another solution is to engrave your secret on something that’s stable up to household fire temperatures.

A real innovation from the Bitcoin world! There are several physical password store systems that they have suggested for this kind of use case. The simplest is basically using a nail to punch out a password onto a piece of sheet metal.

And so we return to our programming-roots with punchcards. :p

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#104

Post by paulgerhardt »

repiret wrote: post #44
bitexploder wrote: post #7

Low tech: I put my secret manager password in a physical journal that is locked in a fire proof, water proof vault and hidden somewhere only my partner and myself know where it is. I use a password manager. Everything else goes in the password manager.

This is what I do too, but be warned about “fire proof” - a fire that results in the total loss of your house will create enough heat for enough time that fireproof gun safes and smaller fireproof lockboxes will be destroyed, or even if not, their contents will get hot enough to combust anyway. A bank safe deposit box offers a different security profile that’s probably more robust against fire because banks burn less…

Just went through this. Sample size one:

While the fire resulted in the total loss of the house it was actually the water from the fire department not the heat that did proportionally more damage.

As a mental model you shouldn’t think of it as “what if my house burns down?” so much as “what if nice strangers roll up to my windows and chainsaw through my roof and spray 50,000 gallons of water in here?”

Yes everything in the mechanical room melted but everything in the rest of the house got hot, smoky, soaked and then moldy.

For root of trust materiel like social security cards, cash, passports put in a ziplock bag in a fireproof, waterproof safe. But for other storage I use clear “Ezy Storage” brand stackable 50L tubs labeled with Homebox QR codes. In the US, Target and Home Depot frequently stock them. I am very anti black and yellow tubs.

The majority of work post-fire goes to itemizing your house inventory for insurance. Even cataloging all your bathroom’s soaps by brand name rather than generic can make $100 difference. Multiply that by 500x different things.

From a threat model perspective I look at rooms from a “what would be salvageable in here if I emptied a swimming pool’s worth of water from some fire sprinklers”. Furniture and TVs are easy to replace. Other stuff less so.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#105

Post by Terr_ »

gingerlime wrote: post #41

Other than passwords though, I also have stuff installed at home on a Synology NAS, a mail server, a VPS running some websites (my own, family, my wife's), Home Assistant, Family photos with backups etc etc. I wonder who would not only have the passwords, but the know-how to manage the whole thing, at least to transition it to more managed services...

I think that boils down to having a checklist addendum to go with your will, an outline of accounts and data to rescue.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#106

Post by octoberfranklin »

Shamir Secret Sharing is notoriously difficult to implement correctly, and even the smallest most subtle bugs result in total compromise.

Consider whether you really need this.

Doing 7-choose-5 separate multiparty encryptions is way harder to screw up. Is having to produce 42 ciphertexts really a dealbreaker?

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#107

Post by octoberfranklin »

ezwoodland wrote: post #89
nippoo wrote: post #16

This kind of thing, widely implemented, would be a game-changer for dealing with assets after someone's death! I maintain my family's IT infrastructure (Google Enterprise admin, webserver etc) and I've been tempted to write down 1/4 of my password manager root password and give it to each of my family members - but then we run into the problem where if any one of them loses their shard, it's unrecoverable. Some kind…

Something along the lines of reed-solomon codes could work for you: If you want to share your password with M family members such that you only need N to agree to recover the original: Split your password into ordered chunks. Make a polynomial p, of power N where the p(1) = chunk1, p(2) = chunk2, ... Evaluate the polynomial at M other points: p(N+1),p(N+2)... Gives those M new points to your family along with their i…

Reed-Solomon is error correction, not encryption.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#108

Post by rawgabbit »

eljojo wrote: post #81
rawgabbit wrote: post #22

For my personal passwords, I use Apple's password manager. It lets me share passwords with my family. I also created a folder on Apple's iCloud that I share. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/share-passwords-iphe6... https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/share-files-and-folde...

I've been so tempted to try out the apple password manager, I'm fully vested in their ecosystem, but the lock in is too big for me to feel comfortable with. This is the sort of stuff that terrifies me https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

It also terrifies me. The best solution I can come up is to export out my passwords to a thumb drive every few months.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#109

Post by aforwardslash »

5 out of 7 means you cannot be in an eg. car accident with more than 2 of them at a time, if there is the possibility of all of them present in the car not surviving.

Im also quite more practical - there are responsabilities that may go beyond a simple memory loss - eg. If one is in a coma or just hospitalized for a long period of time; trusted third parties may require access to your accounts even for simple stuff like paying bills/rent/cloud services.

Re: Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

#110

Post by [deleted] »

nerdsniper wrote: post #79
Eduard wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Gelsenkirchen_heist In December 2025, items worth an estimated €30 million were stolen from a Sparkasse bank in the Gelsenkirchen suburb of Buer, Germany. The thieves used a large drill to break into the bank's underground vault and proceeded to crack over 3,000 safe deposit boxes.

Don’t need events that extreme. Regular branch banks have stuff go missing from the safety deposit boxes shockingly regularly. The locks aren’t particularly secure and various people are able to access them. It can be hard to find articles about them because they don’t make the news like the more remarkable incidents do. Examples of boring security box failures (but that were noteworthy in other ways so they did make…

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