mirror of
https://github.com/quantum5/correcthorsebatterystaple.git
synced 2025-08-02 04:08:13 -04:00
260 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
260 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
<!doctype html>
|
|
<html lang="en">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
|
|
<title>Correct Horse Battery Staple: xkcd-Style Password Generator</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body data-spy="scroll" data-target="nav" data-offset="72">
|
|
<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light fixed-top">
|
|
<div class="container">
|
|
<a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Correct Horse Battery <span class="staple">Staple</span></a>
|
|
<button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#nav-anchors"
|
|
aria-controls="nav-anchors" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
|
|
<span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
|
|
</button>
|
|
|
|
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="nav-anchors">
|
|
<ul class="nav navbar-nav mr-auto">
|
|
<li class="nav-item">
|
|
<a class="nav-link" href="#generator">Password Generator</a>
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li class="nav-item">
|
|
<a class="nav-link" href="#idea">Idea</a>
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li class="nav-item">
|
|
<a class="nav-link" href="#faq">FAQ</a>
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
|
|
<div class="container" id="generator">
|
|
<div class="jumbotron py-4">
|
|
<div class="alert alert-danger" id="too-old">
|
|
<%= require('octicons').alert.toSVG({ height: 24 }) %>
|
|
Your browser is too old: it does not support the necessary APIs for this web application.
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p class="lead">This is a truly secure password generator that generates xkcd-style easy-to-remember passwords.</p>
|
|
<hr class="my-4">
|
|
<div class="input-group mb-3">
|
|
<div id="generated-password" class="form-control form-control-lg text-monospace placeholder">
|
|
Click the Generate button to generate a new password</div>
|
|
<div class="input-group-append">
|
|
<button class="btn btn-success copy" type="button" id="copy-password"
|
|
data-clipboard-target="#generated-password" disabled>
|
|
<%= require('octicons').clippy.toSVG({ height: 20 }) %>
|
|
</button>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="progress my-3" id="password-bits">
|
|
<div class="progress-bar" role="progressbar" aria-valuemin="0"></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<form id="options-form">
|
|
<div class="form-group row">
|
|
<label for="word-list" class="col-sm-2 col-form-label">Word List</label>
|
|
<div class="col-sm-10">
|
|
<select id="word-list" class="form-control custom-select" name="list">
|
|
<option value="small">2048 words (11 bits/word)</option>
|
|
<option value="medium">4096 words (12 bits/word)</option>
|
|
<option value="large" selected>8192 words (13 bits/word)</option>
|
|
</select>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="form-group row">
|
|
<label for="word-count" class="col-sm-2 col-form-label">Word Count</label>
|
|
<div class="col-sm-10">
|
|
<input id="word-count" class="form-control" type="number" name="count" value="4" min="1">
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="form-group row">
|
|
<div class="pt-0 col-sm-2 col-form-label">Options</div>
|
|
<div class="col-sm-10">
|
|
<div class="form-check">
|
|
<input class="form-check-input" type="checkbox" id="use-capitalize" name="capitalize">
|
|
<label for="use-capitalize">Capitalize the first letter</label>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="form-check">
|
|
<input class="form-check-input" type="checkbox" id="use-symbol" name="symbol" checked>
|
|
<label for="use-symbol">Use separator symbol:</label>
|
|
<select id="separator-symbol" name="separator">
|
|
<% [...require('./generator').symbols].forEach(symbol => { %>
|
|
<option<% if (symbol === ' ') { %> value=" "<% } %>><%= _.escape(symbol) %></option>
|
|
<% }) %>
|
|
</select>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="form-check">
|
|
<input class="form-check-input" type="checkbox" id="use-digit" name="digit">
|
|
<label for="use-digit">Add a digit</label>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div>
|
|
<button class="btn btn-lg my-1 btn-primary" id="run-generator">Generate</button>
|
|
<button class="btn btn-lg my-1 btn-success" id="save-settings">Save Settings</button>
|
|
<button class="btn btn-lg my-1 btn-danger" id="clear-settings">Clear Settings</button>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</form>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="container mb-5" id="idea">
|
|
<h3 class="mb-3">The Idea</h3>
|
|
<p class="lead">We tend to associate secure passwords with complicated and hard-to-remember passwords. But it
|
|
doesn't have to be this way.</p>
|
|
<p>We make password difficult to guess by increasing <em>entropy</em> — the degree of uncertainty in the
|
|
password. The higher the entropy, the harder it is to guess the password.</p>
|
|
<p>One way of increasing entropy is to make passwords more complicated. Another way is to make the password
|
|
longer, but keeping it simple, as the following xkcd comic shows:</p>
|
|
<a class="d-block" href="https://xkcd.com/936/"
|
|
title="To anyone who understands information theory and security and is in an infuriating argument with someone who does not (possibly involving mixed case), I sincerely apologize.">
|
|
<figure class="figure border rounded p-4 bg-light">
|
|
<img class="figure-img img-fluid d-block mx-auto p-2 bg-white border border-dark rounded"
|
|
src="<%= require('./xkcd.png') %>" srcset="<%= require('./xkcd.png') %>, <%= require('./xkcd_2x.png') %> 2x" alt="xkcd comic about password strength">
|
|
<figcaption class="figure-caption">To anyone who understands information theory and security and is in an
|
|
infuriating argument with someone who does not (possibly involving mixed case), I sincerely apologize.
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|
</figure>
|
|
</a>
|
|
<p>The core idea is that while using a <em>single</em> dictionary word as a password is horribly insecure and can be
|
|
cracked in seconds, each <em>additional</em> word makes cracking exponentially harder.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>There is a lot of criticism on the internet about this password scheme. However, most of them fail to get the
|
|
actual point. There are also claims that <code>correcthorsebatterystaple</code> is as secure as a 9 character
|
|
password, which sounds fairly bad. This is true if your 9 character password is truly random, such as
|
|
<code>n98idhi3n</code>, and not say, <code>Tr0ub4d0r</code>. The point is that,
|
|
<code>correcthorsebatterystaple</code> is more memorable than <code>n98idhi3n</code>, for approximately equal
|
|
security. To increase security, we can always add more words.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p class="lead"><span class="mark">5 words from the large list</span>, or <span class="mark">6 words
|
|
from the small list</span> is sufficient for all reasonable threats.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Let us consider the absolute worst case, assuming the attacker knows your password is generated by this site,
|
|
knowing that it has 65 bits of entropy, your password was insecurely hashed, and your enemy has GPUs to run
|
|
<span class="mark">500 billion attempts every second</span>. Even then, this scheme will resist the
|
|
cracking attempt for <em>over a year</em>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Running this sort of attack is <em>prohibitively expensive</em>. Unless you possess highly valuable secrets that
|
|
makes this sort of effort worthwhile (you should use something more secure than passwords in such a case), you don't
|
|
have to worry about this hypothetical scenario. If you have to, you can simply add more words.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p class="lead">In practice, most real life systems use secure password hashing algorithms, captchas, and other
|
|
mechanisms to stop password cracking. It is unlikely that your attacker can reach anywhere close to a million
|
|
guesses a second, and so a <span class="mark">four word password</span> (from the large list) is probably sufficient
|
|
in real life. If you are paranoid and want to feel better, use five.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="container mb-5" id="faq">
|
|
<h3 class="mb-3">Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
|
|
<div class="card">
|
|
<div class="card-body">
|
|
<h5 class="card-title">Why did you make this website?</h5>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
I made this website because I wanted a good password generator. I know the xkcd-style password scheme is fairly
|
|
secure and easy to remember, especially if you increase the length, and it's simple enough to understand and
|
|
verify. Most programmers can audit the source code of this website to ensure security.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
Another major part of the reason is that a lot of the similar websites fail to generate passwords securely: for
|
|
example, they used <code>Math.random()</code>, which is not a cryptographically secure random number generator,
|
|
and should never be used to generate passwords. This website aims to avoid such pitfalls, and provide a truly
|
|
secure experience.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
To guarantee this experience, this website does not use any external scripts, not even analytics. Since the
|
|
entire website is aggressively cached on the Cloudflare edge servers, I have no idea who you are, or how many
|
|
of you are using it. To show your support, star
|
|
<a href="https://github.com/quantum5/correcthorsebatterystaple">the GitHub repository</a>.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="card">
|
|
<div class="card-body">
|
|
<h5 class="card-title">Why is this site more secure than alternatives?</h5>
|
|
<ol>
|
|
<li>I have a large list of 8192 words.</li>
|
|
<li>All passwords are generated on your computer. No one else will see it.</li>
|
|
<li>I use <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Crypto/getRandomValues">
|
|
<code>window.crypto.getRandomValues()</code></a> — the only cryptographically-secure random number
|
|
generator in JavaScript, instead of
|
|
<a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Math/random">
|
|
<code>Math.random()</code></a>, whose use is explicitly discouraged for this purporse.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>The source code is available on <a href="https://github.com/quantum5/correcthorsebatterystaple">GitHub</a>.
|
|
You can audit the code all you want, and build your own trusted version locally.
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="card">
|
|
<div class="card-body">
|
|
<h5 class="card-title">I like this website. How can I support you?</h5>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
For security reasons, this website will <b>NEVER</b> serve ads. Unfortunately, servers and domains are not free,
|
|
though I try to be as economical as I can. I would rather lose money running this public service than serve
|
|
ads or shut it down, but if you would like to help me offset the costs, feel free to send some money my way
|
|
on:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://github.com/sponsors/quantum5">GitHub Sponsors</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="card">
|
|
<div class="card-body">
|
|
<h5 class="card-title">Bruce Schneier says this password scheme is broken. Is it?</h5>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
Bruce Schneier completely missed the point:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<blockquote class="blockquote">
|
|
<p class="card-text">Modern password crackers combine different words from their dictionaries:</p>
|
|
<p class="card-text">…</p>
|
|
<p class="card-text">This is why the oft-cited XKCD scheme for generating passwords -- string together
|
|
individual words like "correcthorsebatterystaple" -- is no longer good advice. The password crackers are on to
|
|
this trick.</p>
|
|
<footer class="blockquote-footer">Bruce Schneier, <cite title="Source Title"><a
|
|
href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/choosing_secure_1.html" rel="nofollow">Choosing Secure
|
|
Passwords</a></cite></footer>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
Excuse me, Bruce, but the entropy calculation for this password scheme is based on the absolute worst case
|
|
scenario: that the attackers knows exactly which words you have to choose from, and attempts to guess every
|
|
possible combinations from the known dictionary.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
In essence, we are assuming the attacker is <em>more than</em> <q>on to this trick</q> already. Whether
|
|
attackers are <q>on to this trick</q> is completely therefore irrelevant to its security. If Bruce
|
|
Schneier thinks using four words is insufficiently secure, he should be suggesting five or six words, not
|
|
<strong>shamelessly promoting his own password generation scheme</strong>.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p class="card-text">
|
|
If you don’t believe me, that’s okay. Check out
|
|
<a href="https://security.stackexchange.com/q/62832/103593">this post on the Information Security Stack
|
|
Exchange</a>. The top four answers (with vast majority of the votes) agree with me, and they provide more
|
|
details and additional material to support xkcd-style passwords.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<footer class="footer bg-light">
|
|
<div class="container">
|
|
<p class="text-muted">Copyright © 2018-<%= new Date().getFullYear() %> <a href="https://quantum5.ca">Quantum</a>. Licensed under
|
|
<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html">GNU AGPLv3</a>. Source code available on
|
|
<a href="https://github.com/quantum5/correcthorsebatterystaple">GitHub</a>.<br>
|
|
Available on clearnet at <a href="https://correcthorse.pw">correcthorse.pw</a>.<br>
|
|
Available over Tor at <a href="http://correctpw3wmw7mw.onion">correctpw3wmw7mw.onion</a> and
|
|
<a href="http://correct2qlofpg4tjz5m7zh73lxtl7xrt2eqj27m6vzoyoqyw4d4pgyd.onion">
|
|
correct2<wbr>qlofpg4t<wbr>jz5m7zh7<wbr>3lxtl7xr<wbr>t2eqj27m<wbr>6vzoyoqy<wbr>w4d4pgyd.onion</a>.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</footer>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html> |