public inbox for bitcoindev@googlegroups.com
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Jonathan Sterling <jon@thancodes.com>
To: CryptAxe <cryptaxe@gmail.com>,
	 Bitcoin Protocol Discussion
	<bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Suggestion to remove word from BIP39 English wordlist
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2018 13:55:28 +0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAH01uEu5gu_4z-6r3MbqsjboHuZ87yOxAZq6QxtA-3iUZvoXZw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAF5CFkgO4SEBxTH93-L_d=JBgAmDNFTJa-LrnyjcvY-Esop9EA@mail.gmail.com>

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2015 bytes --]

All the more reason to only use the most common words that meet the other
criteria:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039.mediawiki#Wordlist

I agree - keeping "satoshi" in there is an unnecessary security risk.

Kind Regards,

Jonathan Sterling

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 8:14 AM, CryptAxe via bitcoin-dev <
bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

> Why wouldn't they just test the frequency of words from the wordlist in
> entirety?
>
> On Jan 17, 2018 5:10 PM, "Weiwu Zhang via bitcoin-dev" <bitcoin-dev@lists.
> linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>
>> 2018-01-09 19:20 GMT+08:00 Ronald van der Meer via bitcoin-dev
>> <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>:
>> > After reviewing some bitcoin improvement proposals, I noticed that one
>> of the words that can be found on the BIP39 English wordlist is “satoshi”.
>> > I suggest removing this word from the list so it’s less obvious that
>> it’s a bitcoin seed when found by a malicious third party.
>>
>> If a malicious third party discovers a word list that look like a
>> seed, they would try using it as Bitcoin seed first anyway, with or
>> without finding the word 'satoshi' in it. The security threat is that
>> a malicious third party may index what they found and test every
>> occurrence of 'satoshi' for a lead to a seed.
>>
>> For example, a hard-disk recycling service would add this word to
>> their salvage tools. Any successfully hacked gmail account will be
>> 'satoshi' tested too.
>>
>> So I see this as a reasonable improvement:)
>> _______________________________________________
>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org
>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>
>


-- 
Kind Regards,

Jonathan Sterling
+44 (0)7415 512691

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 3602 bytes --]

  reply	other threads:[~2018-01-18  6:55 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2018-01-09 11:20 [bitcoin-dev] Suggestion to remove word from BIP39 English wordlist Ronald van der Meer
2018-01-18  1:07 ` Weiwu Zhang
2018-01-18  1:14   ` CryptAxe
2018-01-18  6:55     ` Jonathan Sterling [this message]
2018-01-18 19:50       ` Alan Evans
2018-01-18 20:49 Matthew Clancy
2018-01-18 21:29 ` Alan Evans
2018-01-23 19:40   ` Ronald van der Meer

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=CAH01uEu5gu_4z-6r3MbqsjboHuZ87yOxAZq6QxtA-3iUZvoXZw@mail.gmail.com \
    --to=jon@thancodes.com \
    --cc=bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org \
    --cc=cryptaxe@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox