don't use passwords as private keys (was Re: Using a passwordas a private key.)

[Petro]

At 4:20 PM -0500 10/29/98, Adam Back wrote:
>Some people have been talking about using passwords as private keys.
>(By using the passphrase as seed material for regenerating the private
>and public key).
>
>I don't think this is a good idea.
>
>You can't forget passphrases.  You can destroy private key files.
>

	Yes, you can. I had an art director forget his 4 days running,
AFTER LUNCH. He remembered it in the morning, but after lunch he couldn't.

	It wasn't a "passphrase" either, it was a _very_ weak password.
--
"To sum up: The entire structure of antitrust statutes in this country is a
jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance. It is a product: (a) of a
gross misinterpretation of history, and (b) of rather naïve, and certainly
unrealistic, economic theories." Alan Greenspan, "Anti-trust"
http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/antitrust.html

Petro::E-Commerce Adminstrator::Playboy Ent. Inc.::petro at playboy.com