Pass Phrases

Re:

>Sorry, there is no way regular people are going to remember pass words
>or phrases with more than about 50-bits worth of information in
>them--and even doing that well is going to be rare.

I just pick a sentence and use either the first letter of each word or the
last.  If I pick a verse of a song that makes it easy to remember.

If you're willing to chance a little less security of the phrase, pick one
from a book or CD you have near your terminal - I have four or five hundred
paperbacks within 10 feet of my terminal.  It is very easy to remember "book x,
chapter 5 paragraphs 8 through 12."  If you feel paranoid, add 1 letter to each
of the letters derived from your special phrase or some similar modifying
function.

jpb@gate.net

> If I pick a verse of a song that makes it easy to remember.

Aaaaaaagh!

   Eli   ebrandt@hmc.edu

Re:
> 
> > If I pick a verse of a song that makes it easy to remember.
> 
> Aaaaaaagh!

Eli, what I mean is, say you are using the stanza

Can we film the operation,
Is the head dead yet?
Get the widow on the set,
give us dirty laundry

as a mnemonic.

The pass phrase becomes cwftoithdygtwotsgudl
If you pick a simple modification like add 1 to the first letter, 2 the second,
3 to the third, and then repeat (123123) you get a pass phrase of
dyiuqlujgziwxqwtixen.  Throw in some numbers and you should get a decently
random pass phrase that is easy to remember.

If you're really paranoid, pick two phrases from different books and use words
from both to compute the phrase.

Hardly a major security risk if you pick something obscure.

jpb@gate.net

> Hardly a major security risk if you pick something obscure.

Obscurity is no substitute for strong random numbers...  You can
pick your passphrases however you want, but I hope they're not
ftpable from ftp.uwp.edu.

   Eli   ebrandt@hmc.edu