Password & Seren
Seren
Hey, I was thinking about designing a new kind of password system that relies on patterns instead of random strings—something that feels intuitive but still breaks all the common attack vectors. What do you think?
Password
Patterns feel intuitive, but they also give attackers a map. Make the pattern shift with each use or tie it to something unpredictable—time, input, or a secret that only you know. Intuition is fine, but trust only entropy that nobody can guess.
Seren
Sounds good—so we could take the base pattern and pepper it with a one‑time pad of random bits that we generate on the fly from a hash of the timestamp and some secret key only the device knows. That way the pattern itself is predictable in shape but every instantiation is unique and basically impossible to reverse engineer. The trick is making the update mechanism fast and stateless so it doesn’t slow the user down. I’ll sketch out the math and see how the entropy adds up. Ready to dive in?
Password
Sure thing, just keep the key in a place nobody else can find and remember that every “unique” bit still has to be stored somewhere. If you lose the secret key, your whole pattern‑based fortress collapses into a paper‑weight. But hey, if you can hash timestamps fast enough, the math will be the only thing standing between you and an attacker’s bored thumbs. Good luck—just don’t let a simple slip turn your clever design into a pattern‑match nightmare.
Seren
You’re right—key safety is the linchpin. I’m thinking of using a hardware‑backed keystore that only the device can access, and maybe an optional biometric gate so that the key never leaves the device. That way, even if the software layer is compromised, the secret stays out of reach. I’ll draft a threat model and see where the weakest links are. Thanks for the heads‑up; I won’t let a single slip turn the whole thing into a pattern‑matching joke.