[messaging] "Pseudoword" base32 fingerprints

[Trevor Perrin]

On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 4:47 PM, Moritz Bartl <moritz at headstrong.de> wrote:
> Hm. Sorry, stupid question, but why can't you simply map 4-tuples to a
> 65k wordlist? Fantasy names, English, something more pronounceable?
> There could maybe even multiple "authoritative tables" in various languages.


Do you have an example wordlist?  With a 65K dictionary you'll need 8
words for a 128-bit security level.

I tried a couple random word generators on the Internet:


http://www.wordgenerator.net/random-word-generator.php  (claims 90K words)

  cowhage - ekasilicon - democratist - clum - dyslexia - farfetched -
furrier - mangosteen

  matric - beadsman - enterlace - oarswoman - secretitious - incisor -
danite - linstock

  potash - intersert - possum - verbarfunambulo - additionally -
enterotome - turrethead - telegrammic - clupeid


---

http://www.wordreference.com/random/definition  (skipping proper nouns)

  obstacle - isotherm - pestilential - woodsman - fleet - arrowhead -
downgrade - chinwag

  mansuetude - sinistrorse - sporophyte - qawwali - bell - bipinnate -
boathook - bewitch

  elutriate - gesture - unapproachable - pooh-pooh - rodomontade -
cameleer - malfunction - buoy

---

Compare to pseudowords:

  wivoig - datu - siwep - muvu - wkegod

  rahixe - xniy - fxube - avwo - egujef

  atop5l - udag - bofoc - ihin - roybuz


I like the smaller size of the pseudowords, particularly for
transcribing these things, spelling out the characters over the phone,
or viewing on a small screen.  And a lot of the words are unusual so
are going to need to be spelled out.

But it would be interesting to see what a better wordlist looks like.


Trevor