Stars account hacked

[JacksonTens]

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if i ever have thousands of dollars in my account i am making a very VERY random password

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Due to paranoia, I have just created a new batch of online passwords...

I make them by mashing my keyboard. Like this: 'q45bg7076q5npdils'. Now I am off to memorise them.

(The above is not my password)

Do you think hackers could create an algorithm for keyboard mashing? Much like the algorythm for corwd movement?

JT

[elindauer]

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Do you think hackers could create an algorithm for keyboard mashing? Much like the algorythm for corwd movement?

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Actually, I think so. There is going to be a lot of correlation between the different characters in your password.

Here's an example. I type on a dvorak keyboard. Here's the home row:


aoeui dhtns


Now, if I mash the keyboard, I'm going to find that these characters tend to come out next to each other:


la,9gspdisaro;h
sanoctuia s\,o
asnotueis\


My 2nd and 3rd attempts, for example, are surprising similar, and you can see a tremendous correlation to the keys in the home row. A hacker who knew that this was how you generated your password would actually have a lot of information to start with. The "sano" combination appearing so frequently is due to my mashing technique, which is to roll both of my hands from the outside of the keyboard toward the middle. I'd guess this would be pretty common, as it's much more natural then the reverse.

It feels random, but it really isn't at all.

good luck.
Eric