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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?

#81

Post by eljojo »

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/

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

#82

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

econ wrote: post #29

I like it. Perhaps you can use a weird idea of mine. You can discard/modify part of a password before sending it to your backend. Then, when you log in the server has to brute force the missing part. One could extend this with security questions like how many children pets and cars you own. What color was your car in 2024. Use that data to aid brute forcing. The goal would be to be able to decrypt with fewer than 5 s…

That is a neat take on "key strengthening", or "peppering":

https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/20578/definition-...

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

#87

Post by Wistar »

echoangle wrote: post #73
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just make sure that the metal you use has a high enough melting point.

Tungsten, perhaps.

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

#88

Post by rektlessness »

ericbarrett wrote: post #4
ddtaylor wrote: post #3

I suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) related to an e-bike accident two years ago. I woke up in the ICU after a short coma-like thing and the nurses/doctors asking me questions and it was clear I was answering for the 10th time or more, like we had all done this before, but I couldn't remember anything. Thankfully my very long password I use for an encrypted Borgbackup I have was somewhere deep or untouched, but,…

I also had old Google backup codes fail a few years ago. Anybody who hasn't regenerated them in a year or two, I recommend you do so.

Long-term access recovery typically requires rituals like annual check-ins, media rotation, and human drills. We already do this with annual fire-drills.

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

#89

Post by ezwoodland »

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 index (+1,+2,...).

If less than N family members get together, they will not be able to figure out the password much better than guessing. If N get together, they can interpolate their points to form the unique polynomial which will match p. Then evaluate p at p(1),p(2),... to get your original password.

If you put the whole password into 1 chunk, and pad the polynomial with random extra coefficients or points to make the polynomial of sufficient degree, then they get literally no information on the password without having at least N cooperate. If you make multiple chunks then they can do a little correlation between the chunks without knowing the whole thing.

This is sufficiently simple you can even work this out by hand without a computer, though it would be somewhat tedious.

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

#90

Post by 9x39 »

eljojo wrote: post #36
JTbane wrote: post #19

master password on paper hard copy

that's so scary though! what if someone has access to it? or it gets lost when you need it?

Well, there's power of attorney, which centralizes massive authority over your life with someone else, and yet people do so because when you pick right, it's a useful system.

I'm trying to think of how this survives friends (who come and go in your life) having to coordinate. Then again, some people really did have PGP key signing parties...

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