Live data from Hacker News

Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

github.com

111–120 of 153 posts

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#111

Huh I threw together something like this a few weeks ago using asymmetric keys - pass a file and key and it output as smaller encrypted files. Only way to decrypt them - have all the files and the key. Didn't think it was that useful but seems similar to the functionality, but I like that you don't need to share a key here.

The difference here is that with Shamir secret sharing, each file also has a portion of the key and you only need a subset of the files to decrypt. In the example in the readme you can decrypt with at least 3 parts. This means you can lose 2 and still decrypt

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#113
post #108

There was a post about shamir secret sharing recently by levchin (and chaos that it caused at paypal): https://max.levch.in/post/724289457144070144/shamir-secret-s... This is 100% one of my favorite algorithms, but I have to say I've started to wonder if I just have an academic fascination with it and the practical use cases are more limited (limiting?) than I think

> I've started to wonder if I just have an academic fascination with it and the practical use cases are more limited (limiting?) than I think I'm currently writing an entire book based on this concern: pmfpbook.org

And the answer is...

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#114
post #49

Very cool! Now what would be really interesting is combining this with steganography techniques to hide the horcrux fragments inside totally unrelated-looking files.

That would be neat. A printed set of family pictures for example.

Digital steganography is well known but I’ve never personal come across tools for physical images, however I guess I haven’t ever looked.

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#115

I was just thinking about something like this problem. At $work, we use multi-signature signing to move cryptocurrency around, so that at least N of M officers of the company need to sign, to prove that "the company" actually intends a movement of funds to happen. This ensures that no single officer can embezzle funds; and it also ensures that an attacker would have to do some kind of multi-target simultaneous coordi…

[deleted]

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#118

y'all are not understanding the underlying principle: these things work holographically. Dumbledore even said that copying the soul fades it, when Harry was inquiring and specifically pondered the maximum number of times the soul could be copied. †

Needless to say calling this project Horcrux is just silly: it should be named after some other fictional story which requires all of the pieces to be assembled (like the new Starfield story I think).

A Horcrux is like a fax facsimile and loses a lot of information. The entire point of the story was that the gang had to destroy ALL instances of the Horcrux, because He could be revived even with just one (holographic) copy.

Re: Horcrux: Split your file into encrypted fragments

#120

y'all are not understanding the underlying principle: these things work holographically. Dumbledore even said that copying the soul fades it, when Harry was inquiring and specifically pondered the maximum number of times the soul could be copied. †

Tom asked somebody how many times the soul could be copied, too.
Post reply on HN