From: Petro <petro@playboy.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 04:52:57 +0800
To: Adam Back <bill.stewart@pobox.com
Subject: Re: don't use passwords as private keys (was Re: Using a passwordas a private key.)
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19981028012129.008334d0@idiom.com>
Message-ID: <v0401170eb2650185288c@[206.189.103.230]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 4:20 PM -0500 10/29/98, Adam Back wrote:
>Some people have been talking about using passwords as private keys.
>(By using the passphrase as seed material for regenerating the private
>and public key).
>
>I don't think this is a good idea.
>
>You can't forget passphrases.  You can destroy private key files.
>

	Yes, you can. I had an art director forget his 4 days running,
AFTER LUNCH. He remembered it in the morning, but after lunch he couldn't.

	It wasn't a "passphrase" either, it was a _very_ weak password.
--
"To sum up: The entire structure of antitrust statutes in this country is a
jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance. It is a product: (a) of a
gross misinterpretation of history, and (b) of rather nave, and certainly
unrealistic, economic theories." Alan Greenspan, "Anti-trust"
http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/antitrust.html

Petro::E-Commerce Adminstrator::Playboy Ent. Inc.::petro@playboy.com