Collaborate Disseminate
It’s not yet very accurate or practical, but under ideal conditions it is possible to figure out the shape of a house key by listening to it being used.
Listen to Your Key: Towards Acoustics-based Physical Key Inference
Abstract: Physical locks are on… Continue reading Determining Key Shape from Sound
DiceKeys is a physical mechanism for creating and storing a 192-bit key. The idea is that you roll a special set of twenty-five dice, put them into a plastic jig, and then use an app to convert those dice into a key. You can then use that key for a variety of purposes, and regenerate it from the dice if… Continue reading DiceKeys
DiceKeys is a physical mechanism for creating and storing a 192-bit key. The idea is that you roll a special set of twenty-five dice, put them into a plastic jig, and then use an app to convert those dice into a key. You can then use that key for a var… Continue reading DiceKeys
Researchers are using recordings of keys being used in locks to create copies. Once they have a key-insertion audio file, SpiKey’s inference software gets to work filtering the signal to reveal the strong, metallic clicks as key ridges hit the lock’s pins [and you can hear those filtered clicks online here]. These clicks are vital to the inference analysis: the… Continue reading Copying a Key by Listening to It in Action
South Africa’s Postbank experienced a catastrophic security failure. The bank’s master PIN key was stolen, forcing it to cancel and replace 12 million bank cards. The breach resulted from the printing of the bank’s encrypted master key in plain, unencrypted digital language at the Postbank’s old data centre in the Pretoria city centre. According to a number of internal Postbank… Continue reading Bank Card "Master Key" Stolen
Remember Spectre and Meltdown? Back in early 2018, I wrote: Spectre and Meltdown are pretty catastrophic vulnerabilities, but they only affect the confidentiality of data. Now that they — and the research into the Intel ME vulnerability — have shown … Continue reading Another Intel Speculative Execution Vulnerability
Remember Spectre and Meltdown? Back in early 2018, I wrote: Spectre and Meltdown are pretty catastrophic vulnerabilities, but they only affect the confidentiality of data. Now that they — and the research into the Intel ME vulnerability — have shown researchers where to look, more is coming — and what they’ll find will be worse than either Spectre or Meltdown…. Continue reading Another Intel Speculative Execution Vulnerability
The NSA just published a survey of video conferencing apps. So did Mozilla. Zoom is on the good list, with some caveats. The company has done a lot of work addressing previous security concerns. It still has a bit to go on end-to-end encryption. Matthew Green looked at this. Zoom does offer end-to-end encryption if 1) everyone is using a… Continue reading Securing Internet Videoconferencing Apps: Zoom and Others
Interesting collision of real-world and Internet security: The ceremony sees several trusted internet engineers (a minimum of three and up to seven) from across the world descend on one of two secure locations — one in El Segundo, California, just south of Los Angeles, and the other in Culpeper, Virginia — both in America, every three months. Once in place,… Continue reading DNSSEC Keysigning Ceremony Postponed Because of Locked Safe
Interesting collision of real-world and Internet security: The ceremony sees several trusted internet engineers (a minimum of three and up to seven) from across the world descend on one of two secure locations — one in El Segundo, California, just sou… Continue reading DNSSEC Keysigning Ceremony Postponed Because of Locked Safe