aes key size

[frederic]

These are not bugs that prevent the usage of PasswordMaker, but I investigated the encryption of the master password when stored on disk to see if I could recover it (I typed it once and even forgot about it a few months after... :-).

First, the aes encryption key is not 256 bits as advertised at https://passwordmaker.org/passwordmaker.html but only 128 bits as set in variable keySizeInBits in aes.js. As a proof, the key stored on disk is only 32 characters (16 hex bytes or 128 bits).

Second, the key is only made of digits in the range 0 to 9 and not hexadecimal digits. It reduces the key space.

Although it would not improve the security of the master password if all the key space and aes-256 were used, it may be a concern if they are reused in some other part of the code that should be more secure...

Frederic

[Eric H. Jung]

Hello Frederic,

I have changed https://passwordmaker.org/passwordmaker.html (and the associated downloadable zip archive)  to read "AES-128" instead of "AES-256". Thanks for pointing it out.

Can you explain why hexadecimal should be used instead of decimal? I don't see how one is better than the other.

Thank you,
Eric

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

Second, the key is only made of digits in the range 0 to 9 and not hexadecimal digits. It reduces the key space.

I should examine the code a little more as see what he's talking about. But the part I highlight is the point he's making I think.

[Guest]

Can you explain why hexadecimal should be used instead of decimal? I don't see how one is better than the other.

If you limit the keys you use to a subset of all the possibilities, then any attacker can do the same and a brute force attack is simplified. The time it takes for a brute force attack to succeed can be smaller than expected (10/16  in this case which is still 1E21 years with a single average PC but not the maximum allowed by AES).

As I noted, it won't improve much the security of the master password on disk if you use all the hex digits since a brute force attack is not necessary to get to it. But if the same algorithm is used somewhere else to generate a key in PasswordMaker (I admit I haven't checked it) and the security is an issue, then there is room for a simple security improvement.

Frederic

[Eric H. Jung]

I am updating the code at https://passwordmaker.org/passwordmaker.html to use all 16 digits for the key.

But if the same algorithm is used somewhere else to generate a key in PasswordMaker (I admit I haven't checked it) and the security is an issue, then there is room for a simple security improvement.

Yes, it is used in all editions whenever the user chooses to save the master password to disk. I'll update the algorithm there, too.

Thanks,
Eric