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Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

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11–20 of 153 posts

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#12
post #10

This is one of the most badass names for a project I have seen in a while!

It's inaccurate though. The whole point of horcruxes in the book is that Voldemort can always resurrect himself if one of them remains. This tool is the opposite: you need multiple parts to reconstruct the file.

Yeah but that's just copy paste. This is more fun.

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#13
post #10

This is one of the most badass names for a project I have seen in a while!

It's inaccurate though. The whole point of horcruxes in the book is that Voldemort can always resurrect himself if one of them remains. This tool is the opposite: you need multiple parts to reconstruct the file.

[deleted]

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#14
post #11

My understanding of modern cryptography is limited. Can someone explain if someone gets my horcrux files, would they be able to decrypt the original? If so, then what is the benefit of this tool?

Hiding the fragments is like hiding your password. Of course they get the original if they have the fragments. That's the purpose.

You could always encrypt the file before splitting it.

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#15
post #11

My understanding of modern cryptography is limited. Can someone explain if someone gets my horcrux files, would they be able to decrypt the original? If so, then what is the benefit of this tool?

Yeah, so this is best thought of as a backup tool in which the files are kept separately from each the, more than just a different way to encrypt a file.

If you give a plaintext file to a friend for safe keeping, the friend can see the file. You could encrypt the file, but encrypting a file requires a key or password, which you could forget or lose.

The idea here is: split the file into three parts. Give one part to the bank deposit box, one to a friend, and put one in a safe at home. Now, if you want to restore the original, nobody can restore without getting (for example) two of the three pieces.

This is nice because your friend and the bank can’t do anything with their copies alone, and won’t trust each other with their copy normally. But if you lose your piece, you can still ask the friend and the bank for theirs.

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#16
post #11

My understanding of modern cryptography is limited. Can someone explain if someone gets my horcrux files, would they be able to decrypt the original? If so, then what is the benefit of this tool?

I would imagine if you're worried you could just split the files with this, and of you think the encryption is 'weak' you could encrypt again with another tool. Probably not a bad idea.

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#17
post #10

This is one of the most badass names for a project I have seen in a while!

It's inaccurate though. The whole point of horcruxes in the book is that Voldemort can always resurrect himself if one of them remains. This tool is the opposite: you need multiple parts to reconstruct the file.

Horcrux would be a cool name for a database backup service

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#19
> Q) This isn't really in line with how horcruxes work in the harry potter universe!

> A) It's pretty close! You can't allow any one horcrux to be used to resurrect the original file (and why would you that would be useless) but you can allow two horcruxes to do it (so only off by one). Checkmate HP fans.

Well the whole point of hurcruxes is to have backup in several places. This tool to backup your backups in several places is a much better use of the name https://github.com/chrispoole643/horcrux. Checkmate jesseduffield ;)

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#20

Fun repo that uses the Shamir Secret Sharing Scheme to break a file into parts which can be recombined to get the original. From the README Who this is for: People who need to encrypt a big sensitive file like a diary and don't expect to remember any passwords years from now (but who paradoxically will be capable of remembering where they've hidden their horcruxes) People who want to transmit files across multiple ch…

And for people who are confident that the some compatible horcrux tool is still available.
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