this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2026
46 points (87.1% liked)

Selfhosted

61126 readers
438 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.

  8. AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It's the first idea I had when it came to making sure login on my server is secure. Instead of having a small password that relies on my fallinble memory and may be also guessed in a not-completely-rodiculous amount of time.

Meanwhile a fairly small file, something like a 512 byte "user.key", to be uploaded along with your username, or even just having your username built-in, seems much safer.

I wanted to do some math but I could only find limited calculators for doing calculations with such big numbers so have the amount of possible combinations the file may have:

256^5121,044,388,881,413,152,506,691,752,710,716,624,382,579,964,249,047,383,780,384,233,483,283,953,907,971,557,456,848,826,811,934,997,558,340,890,106,714,439,262,837,987,573,438,185,793,607,263,236,087,851,365,277,945,956,976,543,709,998,340,361,590,134,383,718,314,428,070,011,855,946,226,376,318,839,397,712,745,672,334,684,344,586,617,496,807,908,705,803,704,071,284,048,740,118,609,114,467,977,783,598,029,006,686,938,976,881,787,785,946,905,630,190,260,940,599,579,453,432,823,469,303,026,696,443,059,025,015,972,399,867,714,215,541,693,835,559,885,291,486,318,237,914,434,496,734,087,811,872,639,496,475,100,189,041,349,008,417,061,675,093,668,333,850,551,032,972,088,269,550,769,983,616,369,411,933,015,213,796,825,837,188,091,833,656,751,221,318,492,846,368,125,550,225,998,300,412,344,784,862,595,674,492,194,617,023,806,505,913,245,610,825,731,835,380,087,608,622,102,834,270,197,698,202,313,169,017,678,006,675,195,485,079,921,636,419,370,285,375,124,784,014,907,159,135,459,982,790,513,399,611,551,794,271,106,831,134,090,584,272,884,279,791,554,849,782,954,323,534,517,065,223,269,061,394,905,987,693,002,122,963,395,687,782,878,948,440,616,007,412,945,674,919,823,050,571,642,377,154,816,321,380,631,045,902,916,136,926,708,342,856,440,730,447,899,971,901,781,465,763,473,223,850,267,253,059,899,795,996,090,799,469,201,774,624,817,718,449,867,455,659,250,178,329,070,473,119,433,165,550,807,568,221,846,571,746,373,296,884,912,819,520,317,457,002,440,926,616,910,874,148,385,078,411,929,804,522,981,857,338,977,648,103,126,085,903,001,302,413,467,189,726,673,216,491,511,131,602,920,781,738,033,436,090,243,804,708,340,403,154,190,336

What am I missing? I assume I'm missing something, because the idea of something like this going over a lot of smart programmers and developers' heads does not sound right

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Mio@feddit.nu 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)
  1. You need the file everywhere. So when lunch time on work I can't login, it is not my computer but the company machine. Yes, i have my smartphone with me I dont want to send that file to work.
  2. Easier with password. Easy to setup and to reuse a long password that you already have.
  3. My ssh server is not reachable easily. Ip restrictions goes a long way and Wireguard is good.
[โ€“] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 6 months ago
  1. Congratulations, now your work computer has access to the password (you are not as guillible to think work computer is not recording everything for the stakeholders, are you?)