Fuzzy (OP)
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June 29, 2011, 10:52:18 AM |
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This friend I know ![Roll Eyes](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif) is using winrar to encrypt his wallets with fairly long passwords. How secure is winrars password encryption, and what's the next most convenient and more reliable form of file encryption?
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SomeoneWeird
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June 29, 2011, 10:57:02 AM |
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WinRAR uses an ineffective encryption standard (afaik). Tell him to use truecrypt.
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Sukrim
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June 29, 2011, 10:59:36 AM |
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WinRAR uses an ineffective encryption standard (afaik). 128bit AES... yeah, sure - very ineffective. NOT!
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SomeoneWeird
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June 29, 2011, 11:02:30 AM |
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WinRAR uses an ineffective encryption standard (afaik). 128bit AES... yeah, sure - very ineffective. NOT! Ok goshh, they didn't use aes last time I used it.
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XIU
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June 29, 2011, 11:26:04 AM |
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WinRAR uses an ineffective encryption standard (afaik). 128bit AES... yeah, sure - very ineffective. NOT! Ok goshh, they didn't use aes last time I used it. It has changed since v3.0, so together with a strong password, it'll be secure enough for some time ![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
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BitcoinPorn
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June 29, 2011, 11:31:28 AM |
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Go with TrueCrypt.
I know this shouldn't matter, but I think it would be weird to protect something so valuable with a program everyone has on their desktop. I am not sure why I feel like it matters to me, but it does, I can't find the logic in it yet.
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Fuzzy (OP)
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June 29, 2011, 11:32:59 AM |
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Go with TrueCrypt.
I know this shouldn't matter, but I think it would be weird to protect something so valuable with a program everyone has on their desktop. I am not sure why I feel like it matters to me, but it does, I can't find the logic in it yet.
Well, just in case my grandma wants to brute force it ![Cheesy](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
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XIU
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June 29, 2011, 11:41:12 AM |
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Go with TrueCrypt.
I know this shouldn't matter, but I think it would be weird to protect something so valuable with a program everyone has on their desktop. I am not sure why I feel like it matters to me, but it does, I can't find the logic in it yet.
Only annoying part is that you have to create a volume that is big enough, because re-sizing isn't really possible (I've saw somewhere about someone having a 150MB+ wallet.dat file)
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SomeoneWeird
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June 29, 2011, 11:44:58 AM |
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Go with TrueCrypt.
I know this shouldn't matter, but I think it would be weird to protect something so valuable with a program everyone has on their desktop. I am not sure why I feel like it matters to me, but it does, I can't find the logic in it yet.
Only annoying part is that you have to create a volume that is big enough, because re-sizing isn't really possible (I've saw somewhere about someone having a 150MB+ wallet.dat file) Just create a 1gb volume and have the entire bitcoin datadir in that.
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JoelKatz
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June 29, 2011, 11:50:44 AM |
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This friend I know ![Roll Eyes](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif) is using winrar to encrypt his wallets with fairly long passwords. How secure is winrars password encryption, and what's the next most convenient and more reliable form of file encryption? How long is fairly long? The weak link would be a brute-force attack, and the plausibility of that will directly depend on how many passwords someone would have to try to get to his. There already exists hardware used by law enforcement to brute force WinRAR passwords. http://www.forensic-computers.com/TACC1441.php
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I am an employee of Ripple. Follow me on Twitter @JoelKatz 1Joe1Katzci1rFcsr9HH7SLuHVnDy2aihZ BM-NBM3FRExVJSJJamV9ccgyWvQfratUHgN
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nosfera2
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June 29, 2011, 11:56:40 AM |
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7-Zip has 256 bit AES. I'm using that with an 18 char password and storing my wallet completely and permanently offline, so I'm sleeping pretty well at night ![Wink](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/wink.gif) Now I just have to fill it with a few BTC haha!
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JoelKatz
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Democracy is vulnerable to a 51% attack.
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June 29, 2011, 12:09:55 PM |
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7-Zip has 256 bit AES. I'm using that with an 18 char password and storing my wallet completely and permanently offline, so I'm sleeping pretty well at night ![Wink](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/wink.gif) Now I just have to fill it with a few BTC haha! 7-Zip uses iterated SHA-256 as its key derivation function. This is weak against hardware brute force attacks. If your password really is 18 randomish characters, you should be fine. If it's one English word with a few digits before or after it, you are theoretically vulnerable to that kind of attack. On the bright side, you don't really have to worry about someone stealing your wallet today and then breaking it in ten years when the computing power is available to do so. Shortly before the time any encryption scheme you ever used to protect your wallet becomes vulnerable to an attack (due to increasing computing power, a newly-discovered flaw, or whatever), you can simply transfer all your BitCoins to a brand new wallet using an encryption scheme that is stronger.
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da2ce7
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June 29, 2011, 12:21:04 PM |
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WINRAR is fine... providing you use a secure password... The password search space for a Uppercas, Lowercase, Digit, and Symbols 12 digit password is 5.46 x 10^23 That would take over 100 years at one hundred trillion guesses per second. (10x the power of the entire bitcoin network). useful link: https://www.grc.com/%5Chaystack.htm
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One off NP-Hard.
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nosfera2
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June 29, 2011, 12:27:46 PM |
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7-Zip uses iterated SHA-256 as its key derivation function. This is weak against hardware brute force attacks. If your password really is 18 randomish characters, you should be fine. If it's one English word with a few digits before or after it, you are theoretically vulnerable to that kind of attack.
Are you sure? The version I have (Ver 9.20) says AES-256. And yes, 18 random chars.
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JoelKatz
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June 29, 2011, 12:28:45 PM |
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The password search space for a Uppercas, Lowercase, Digit, and Symbols 12 digit password is 5.46 x 10^23
That would take over 100 years at one hundred trillion guesses per second. (10x the power of the entire bitcoin network).
Provided you understand the difference between '!HackZl0l' (awful), '1naHTG?pw77' (just good enough for now), and '34rW0,3iviQ!' (good enough for the next 30 years for sure).
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JoelKatz
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Democracy is vulnerable to a 51% attack.
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June 29, 2011, 12:29:35 PM |
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]7-Zip uses iterated SHA-256 as its key derivation function. This is weak against hardware brute force attacks. If your password really is 18 randomish characters, you should be fine. If it's one English word with a few digits before or after it, you are theoretically vulnerable to that kind of attack.
Are you sure? The version I have (Ver 9.20) says AES-256. And yes, 18 random chars. An attack would be on the weakest link which is the key derivation, not the encryption. http://www.7-zip.org/7z.html says: "This algorithm uses cipher key with length of 256 bits. To create that key 7-Zip uses derivation function based on SHA-256 hash algorithm. A key derivation function produces a derived key from text password defined by user. For increasing the cost of exhaustive search for passwords 7-Zip uses big number of iterations to produce cipher key from text password." 18 random characters is secure for the foreseeable future.
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da2ce7
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June 29, 2011, 12:30:37 PM |
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It is weird as a 10 digit password [a-Z][0-9][!-~] has a search space of 6.05 x 10^19 and could be cracked in 10 weeks by the Bitcoin network... Secure passwords are much more secure than you expect.
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One off NP-Hard.
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nosfera2
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June 29, 2011, 12:36:23 PM |
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I see! Thanks for claring that up, JoelKatz.
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nosfera2
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June 29, 2011, 12:39:02 PM |
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I see! Thanks for clearing that up, JoelKatz.
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da2ce7
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June 29, 2011, 12:43:17 PM |
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Make sure you pick at least one character in each group:
Lowercase: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Uppercase: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Number: 1234567890 Symbol: `~!@#$%^&*()-_=+\|[{]};:'",<.>/? (space)
09 char = insecure 10 char = low security 11 char = medium security 12 char = good security (good enough for your wallet) 13 char = v.good enough for anything.
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One off NP-Hard.
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