Skip to main content

Introducing hushnote

This weekend I decided I wanted to fix my password problem. That is, I wanted my passwords secure and managed in the cloud.

Let me introduce hushnote, yet another host-proof, web-based password and secret information manager. I was inspired by the simplicity of Aaron Boodman's halfnote and Brett Cannon's Oplop. Combining the two felt natural.

Here is my suggested usage pattern for hushnote:
  • Think up a master password and enter it into the "Oplop password" box.
  • Think up a label (for instance, "hushnote", "foo", or "spam") for hushnote and enter it into the "Oplop label" box (which replaces the password box after entering your password). The Oplop algorithm will generate a new hushnote password for you based on the combination of your master password and hushnote label.
  • Copy the password into the "hushnote password" box and fetch your encrypted note.
  • Now, use the encrypted note to store your Oplop labels for other sites or any other secret information you want to keep track of.
Hushnote handles all hashing, encryption, and decryption locally in the browser. Your passwords, labels, and notes are never sent to the server unencrypted. Hushnote is served over SSL so you can be confident that it is actually hushnote you are connecting to and that it hasn't been modified in flight by any meanie-pants hackers.

The source code isn't complicated, but here's the highlight reel:
  • Your hushnote password is hashed to check if it matches the password used to encrypt the content stored on the server. This is sent along with the first AJAX call to retrieve your note.
  • Your hushnote password is then used to decrypt the content retrieved from the server.
  • Finally, your hushnote password is used to encrypt the note. Your encrypted content and password hash are sent to the server in the second AJAX call.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Email Injection

Not so long ago, I ran a wiki called SecurePHP. On that wiki, there was one particular article about email injection that received a lot of attention. Naturally, with all the attention came lots of spam. As a result, I disabled editing of the wiki and content stagnated. Still, the email injection article remained popular. About a year later, the server that hosted SecurePHP died and I never had a chance to hook it all back up. I saved the article though and I'm reposting it now. It may be a bit old (I've been away from PHP for a long time), and I didn't write all of it, so feel free to leave comments about needed updates and corrections. Though this article focuses on PHP, it provides a lot of general information regarding email injection attacks. The PHP mail() Function There are a lot of ways to send anonymous emails, some use it to mass mail, some use it to spoof identity, and some (a few) use it to send email anonymously. Usually a web mailform using the mail() funct
Read more

XBee ZNet 2.5 Wireless Accelerometer

I managed to put together a wireless accelerometer the other night using my two new XBees, an Arduino XBee shield, an XBee Explorer USB, an ADXL330, and some Python. I struggled a bit with some of it, so here's what I learned: First, a parts list. XBee 2mW Series 2.5 Chip Antenna Arduino XBee (with XBee Series 2.5 module) XBee Explorer USB ADXL330 I'm not sure exactly what the specs are on the XBee that comes with the Arduino shield. But, it is definitely a series 2.5. The first thing to do is to configure and upgrade the firmware on your XBees. To do that, you'll need X-CTU (for the firmware upgrade at least, but it's also nice for configuration) which, unfortunately, is only available for Windows. But, it works fine from VMware. First up, the XBee we'll hook up to the computer to read incoming data from the accelerometer: Plug one of the XBees into the Explorer (it's also possible to do this from the Arduino shield by shifting the two XBee/USB jumpers to USB
Read more

Android Recipes and Snippets

I've put together a small collection of Android recipes. For each of these recipes, this is an instance of Context (more specifically, Activity or Service ) unless otherwise noted. Enjoy :) Intents One of the coolest things about Android is Intents . The two most common uses of Intents are starting an Activity (open an email, contact, etc.) and starting an Activity for a result (scan a barcode, take a picture to attach to an email, etc.). Intents are specified primarily using action strings and URIs. Here are some things you can do with the android.intent.action.VIEW action and startActivity() . Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW); // Choose a value for uri from the following. // Search Google Maps: geo:0,0?q=query // Show contacts: content://contacts/people // Show a URL: http://www.google.com intent.setData(Uri.parse(uri)); intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); startActivity(intent); Other useful action/URI pairs include: Intent.ACTION_DIAL , tel://867530
Read more