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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?

#211

Post by kube-system »

If you are preparing for accidents where memory loss might be an issue you might also want to consider that you could quickly be in a situation where:

* you forget that you have a clever password scheme

* you forget that you have data to decrypt

* your mental capacities are deteriorated enough that someone else takes over decisions making for you. This person may not know you or your data protection scheme.

* you are physically injured where biometrics are non functional. Or a biometric system with a limit on tries may have been tripped by those trying to help you.

* you were in an incident that your friends/family were also affected by

In my opinion, the best way to protect against these is simply write stuff down in plaintext somewhere that relies on physical security, like with documents in your home. Also notate what they are and why someone would need to access them and how.

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

#212

Post by whycombinetor »

Schmerika wrote: post #195
giantfrog wrote: post #187

This system introduces a fun question: What’s more likely, that you suffer total spontaneous memory loss or your best friends betray you?

I think you'd have to plot a curve based on the potential reward of betrayal... I suspect that many Americans* would have their 5th closest friends committed or worse for low 6 figures. If in ~dire straits, as about half all Americans are, that number could get much lower. * If my use of the word 'Americans' above is triggering, feel free to substitute it with 'people'.

Yea, this project gives less "my contract partners will benevolently read my diary after I die" than "enabling and incentivizing my closest friends to hold a vote to redistribute all my assets amongst themselves"

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

#213

Post by hdjrudni »

qwertfisch wrote: post #163
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but your house has to burn down and you have to simultaneously lose your memory. If your house and PC burn, restore from online backup. If your brain burns, spouse restores from vault.

This assumes having a spouse.

Sure... if you don't have a spouse, leave it with a sibling. I put my Bitcoin key in my brother's safe. And if you don't have a sibling or parent or best friend, you can usually rent a locker at a bank.

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

#214

Post by ddtaylor »

lucb1e wrote: post #182
ddtaylor wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It accepted the backup code and my correct password and then wanted to verify more stuff, which there was nothing, and just said "Sorry, we can't give you access to your account right now".

Ah, yes okay that sounds precisely like my situation as well. Not so much the backup codes not working as Google's auth gatekeeper being moody, the last thing you want from a login system

I understand how it plays out, but these are backup codes that I put into a backup strategy for serious life events and both times I needed them they failed to accomplish what they are for =(

Had I followed Googles own advice and relied entirely on these codes (which I thought I was doing) I would still be locked out of all those accounts, purchase history, Google Play Developer, etc.

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

#215

Post by kmoser »

qwertfisch wrote: post #163
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but your house has to burn down and you have to simultaneously lose your memory. If your house and PC burn, restore from online backup. If your brain burns, spouse restores from vault.

This assumes having a spouse.

s/spouse/executor/

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

#217

Post by hypeatei »

csullivannet wrote: post #133
seized wrote: post #131

Look at Bitwardens Emergency Access: https://bitwarden.com/help/emergency-access/ Would also cover banking details or whatever else you want to put in there.

> Trusted emergency contacts must be existing Bitwarden users While the motivation is similar this basically kills the feature. It requires that your friends not only use but continue to maintain their accounts. From my understanding of OP's implementation, being completely offline they can basically just keep the key on a USB or file store of any kind. Personally I think the most robust solution is single key access…

> just keep the key on a USB or file store of any kind

Similar arguments could be made against this too: trusted contacts need to make sure the USB isn't damaged or lost and that the files haven't been corrupted. At the end of the day, these types of recovery flows require some level of engagement which in itself is an issue since human beings are very flawed.

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

#218

Post by sowbug »

eljojo wrote: post #43
modeless wrote: post #5

For this purpose Google offers "Inactive Account Manager" AKA a dead man's switch.

I don't use Google :(

You don't need to use Google day-to-day. Create a single-purpose Gmail account and set up Inactive Account Manager to provide Google Drive access to your trusted contacts at the designated time. Put a single document in the drive that contains whatever your recovery instructions are, and encrypt it with the secret that is unlocked with your M-of-N Shamir shares.

Now you don't have to trust your M of N friends as much, because they can conspire to unlock the secret early, but they won't get access to the document that the secret unlocks until after your demise.

There are non-fatal problems with this approach -- your N friends have to recognize the email they receive from a strange Gmail address 3 months after you're gone. You might lose the password to the Gmail account and be unable to get in there yourself, causing it to declare you dead when you're not. All these issues can be mitigated with extra care.

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

#219

Post by kortex »

Glad to see this idea getting traction!

Had the same idea years ago (same hashicorp lib too) but lost motivation to polish it to the point I felt confident enough to Show HN. https://github.com/xkortex/passcrux

But given recent events, I want to restart work on it.

My use-case revolved more around preserving a master password e.g. to a password manager. I also wanted to support self-hosted backup, like hiding shares and giving directions to the parts to trusted friends. The shamir sharing part was straightforward but i really want to add forward error-correction to protect against partial data loss.

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

#220

Post by kortex »

eljojo wrote: post #185
kunley wrote: post #167

The idea is very noble. In am just thinking about the number of 5, who these times has really five trustable friends not just acquaintances or people bound by some specific activity perishing over time. I am afraid, for most people in the digital era this number is much lower (and I am certainly not speaking for myself now).

"who has five friends?" has been the number one comment I've received on this, by far. a bubble just popped for me

You should add a feature where you can select the shares/threshold, with 3/5 being the default.

edit: d'oh! you do, I didn't get that far into using it yet cause I was on mobile.

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