I gotcha bud.
It’s a riff on the olive meme.
knowyourmeme.com/…/hungry-but-too-tired-to-cook-t…
256 bit and 512 bit encryption are somewhat common. A 256 bit private key is 64 characters long (I’m simplifying this, don’t @ me about it being hex). A 512 bit private key is twice as long. That long string of random characters is what gives this type of encryption its power. It’s essentially unguessable, even with a computer and a lot of time.
Using “4” as your private key would significantly undermine security. Hackers can’t check every possible option for a 512 bit key, but they can certainly (and trivially) try simple numbers padded by 0’s, like our “4” private key.
You’ve taken a strong and proven system and made it trivially weak. That’s the joke. It’s not that funny, but that’s what you’re missing.
Hope that helps.
usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Uh roommate must have predicted the future because this is about a private key for a certificate authority using the number “4” as their whole private key. As well as a couple other low digit numbers
arstechnica.com/…/the-internet-goes-on-high-alert…
story@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
yes! i think so! he was the one who introduced me to xkcd!
bedwyr@piefed.ca 1 day ago
Wait, xlcd? One of my laptops had the keys randomly not do what they are supposed to, and some give values like that, but it will give like three of those, than switch to another string to endlessly repeat after that. I don’t know what the fuck is going on.
theneverfox@pawb.social 1 day ago
LMAO what? That’s wild