Plain old randomness just doesn't cut it sometimes. Personalize your SSH keys.
santosh@goodgodwhy$ python quotekey.py -h
usage: quotekey.py [-h] [--message [MESSAGE]] [--key_file [KEY_FILE]]
[--key_strength_bytes [KEY_STRENGTH_BYTES]]
Generate boutique SSH keys. This script embeds a string of your choice into the
modulus of a freshly generated SSH key pair.
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--message [MESSAGE] Statement you would like your authorized_keys to make
--key_file [KEY_FILE]
Location to write SSH private key file
--key_strength_bytes [KEY_STRENGTH_BYTES]
Desired length of modulus in bytes
santosh@goodgodwhy:~/src/quotekey$ python quotekey.py
These keys are probably not safe for real-use, but I don't know enough cryptography to quantify the impact of reducing entropy this way on the chance of finding either prime.
- libgmp10
- python-gmpy2
The idea is not my own. I remember reading someone who did the same thing for their SSL certificates, but I can't find their page anymore. If you do, please let me know so I can link to them here.