[Babel-users] BASE64 and hex encoding HMAC keys for user presentation

[Dave Taht]

On Sat, Dec 1, 2018 at 12:11 PM Dave Taht <dave.taht at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I would like the bird and babel implementations to allow for and use
> BASE64 and hex encodings.
>
> This allows for a shorter, more human friendly representation of both
> cryptographically generated keys and the keys humans are more likely
> to remember and type without error. In the latter case, guidelines as
> to length, mixed case and punctuation would be useful.
>
> There are only so many hexadecimal jokes that are easy to remember,
> deadbeef being the most common. Requiring that a hex key be prefixed
> with 0x and that keys otherwise shown users
> be in base64 would make for an easier deployment, and keys like
> Get0ffMyLawnBadGuys and NSAdeliveryVAN easier on the eyes than the
> equivalent: 0x19eb747df3322dac2705a746bb2b and 0x35201d7a58af7abc9500
> and still allows for harder keys to be cryptographically generated by
> other tools, like IG/MmDjiVJW0+ojz32+4KDtVuGlJJKkhYEEEkpbwTkE=
>
> I do not off the top of my head know how much this compromises the
> dynamic range of a given key, but I would hope that being

easier on humans, it makes for an easier deployment.
>
> --
>
> Dave Täht
> CTO, TekLibre, LLC
> http://www.teklibre.com
> Tel: 1-831-205-9740



-- 

Dave Täht
CTO, TekLibre, LLC
http://www.teklibre.com
Tel: 1-831-205-9740