Hacker News Reader

Comment by hairyplanner | Hacker News Reader

My biggest challenge as I’m getting older is remembering my long secret key.

Even with a password manager that requires me to remember only a few passphrases (personal and work being two), there is a non zero chance now that a fall and a concussion would lock me out of my password manager.

Anyone else have a solution or a suggestion for this problem?

View on HN

My wife has my passphrases in her password manager and I have her passphrase in my password manager.

This is maybe not the most secure way to do it, but this is good enough for our threat model.

These are offline password managers.

Wear a helmet and hip pads, but failing that split the password in half (as in literally the first half and the second half, don't try to get fancy with crypto) and give the halves to two people unlikely to collude. Your computer will no longer have 5th amendment protection, though.

Or better, use `Shamir's Secret Sharing`

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_secret_sharing

GP specifically called out, "don't try to get fancy with crypto" and I'm inclined to agree with them for this use case.

Shamir's secret sharing with 3 separate lawyers is kind of hard to beat if you have cryptocurrency or other similar assets that absolutely need a password to recover it, and it is a relatively easy algorithm to run. Give them the same instruction sheet on how to run the algorithm, plus a different second page with their fragment of the key.

Most of the time, though, the "call us" approach actually works, and you can give your relatives power of attorney to handle this.

Use the good old post-it method

Remember poe : what's hidden in plain sight is never found (and nobody is looking anyway)

Write it down on a piece of paper.

You could try Entropy Keycrypt -> https://entropykey.com/features

Yes. Place the secrets in a secured (symmetric encrypted) document. Then print the password for that document and hand it to a loved one, trusted family member/friend, or lawyer.

Biometrics?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com