On 10/09/13 11:06, d-_-b wrote:
<snark> Can we re-purpose our BTC mining device to help crack it? </snark>
Snarky indeed as the miner is ASIC (application specific integrated
circuit) based.
As such, it's good for one thing only, taking a string provided by the
host, trying to add on a gazillion different sequential nonces to it
(critical point as no host to miner communication needed for each one
and this can be done in parallel), SHA256 hashing it and checking if the
result has the required number of zeros as a prefix. (that's the bitcoin
proof of work copied from anti-spam idea hashcash)
What we're trying to do is hash candidate passphrases (which are cycled
through by specific human oriented rules, not nonce values apart) and
then use the result to perform an AES decrypt.
I wouldn't rule out FPGA's being applied to this at some point...
I did rescue one from Skullspace 1 which I put on the "Too cool for
Skullspace list":
http://wiki.skullspace.ca/index.php/Too_cool_for_Skullspace
But I suspect GPU's will end up being the tool of choice instead. So,
perhaps at some point the Skullspace 1 workstation will end up with a
sign on it that says:
"Hi, we're tying up the GPU on this for cracking the great Skullspace
bitcoin loss of 2013. Feel free to hit our nicely designed stop button
to allow yourself to put the GPU to more productive or unproductive
[gaming] uses, just start it up again when you're done.
And don't worry about a reboot, we've got persistent state taken care of
y'all."
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