Shouting Into Space - Computing

Creating CrashPlan Encryption Keys

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 20:53:07 -0700

I use CrashPlan for continuous backup on all my main home computers (that's five currently). I'm also a cryptography freak in that I'll encrypt anything I can! I wanted to use the backup encryption in CrashPlan and seeing a possible security hole with allowing CrashPlan to generate its own keys, I decided to do it the hard way (like most things I do).

These are the steps I took to generate my own hardened CrashPlan encryption keys. I have a different one for every machine CrashPlan is installed on...

This is all done, of course, on a Mac (why do it anywhere else?)

1. Create a password of 56 8-bit characters in any way you want.
Using "Password Assistant," create two "Random" strings of 28 characters.

2. Paste the two 28 character strings as one line into a text file called 'password.key' Make sure there are no line breaks in the file.

3. Base64 encode the file using the terminal.

/usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 -in password.key -out password.base64

To decode the file you can use the following:

/usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 -d -in password.base64 -out password.key

4. On the "Settings" pane of CrashPlan, select the "Security" tab.
In the "Archive Encryption" section, choose "Replace with your own data key (Advanced)," then paste the contents of the file "password.base64" you created in step 3.

5. Make sure you save the original password (and maybe the Base64 encoded version as well) somewhere safe (an encrypted disk image maybe?). You might need them later and if you forget the password, your backup archive will be unaccessible.

* If you really want to be ultra-super-mega-mondo secure, you can make a really "dirty" password with the following command (by dirty, I mean there is a good chance you won't be able to type the bare password. Just try to base64 decode the output of this command to a file to see for yourself).

/bin/dd bs=56 count=1 if=/dev/random | /usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 > password.txt

** If you're adventurous, you can try to weed out some of the "dirtier" characters with 'tr'

/bin/dd bs=56 count=1 if=/dev/random | tr -cd '\11\12\15\40-\176' | /usr/bin/openssl enc -base64 > password.txt

Good luck! I hope this satisfies your craving for hard-core encrypted CrashPlan backups.

Run Script at Mac OS X Login

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:28:12 -0700

I know alot of people want to know how to do this. The solution is usually creating a shell script and naming it with the '.command' extension so it'll launch the Terminal.

The cleaner way is through a simple launchd plist placed in your ~/Library/LaunchAgents folder.

Here's my example:

$ cat ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.latcarf.loginscript.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.latcarf.loginscript</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/bin/bash</string>
<string>/Users/latcarf/Documents/script/loginscript.bash</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

# Start it up
$ launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.latcarf.loginscript.plist
# Or just reboot or logout and back in to kick it off.
# Only runs once at login.

iPod and iPad Touching Kids...!?

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:46:00 -0800

I saw this the other day... Marketing people scare me.

Lexikon

nospam@example.com (Latcarf) — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 14:47:00 -0800

Just Released:

Lexikon - Konfabulator Widget for Macintosh! (version 1.0)
by Latcarf and NeurolithicTechnology();

Lexikon offers a tiny interface to search for definitions and synonyms using public dictionary and thesaurus websites. Over 10 different websites are currently supported so you can choose your favorite one. Lexikon searches can be initiated by the keyboard or the mouse and the interface is unobtrusive so as not to interfere with your daily activities. As an added bonus, Lexikon offers special features to allow searching Google.com or the iTunes Music Store! Use Lexikon to define unknown words and add to your own mental lexicon.

You must have Konfabulator installed to use this widget.

Thanks alot to NeurolithicTechnology(); for handling packaging and release distribution for me!

Download Lexikon.
UDIF-CRC32 Checksum: $FEA92523

Enjoy!