Re: [bitcoin-dev] BIP Proposal - Address Paste Improvement

From: Moral Agent <ethan.scruples@gmail•com>
To: dp@simplexum•com,
	 Bitcoin Protocol Discussion
	<bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] BIP Proposal - Address Paste Improvement
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2018 12:43:36 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CACiOHGzot7AFg4qS5FgSMxMjZWm+u6T6+eWW49g8dfK=PDtfkg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20181108131130.134b2d43@simplexum.com>

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>The problem will be to come up with an address authentication
procedure that will be convenient for users and widely supported, as a
result.

You could locally hash the destination address and from the hash derive a
BIP39 style list of 12 words for visual comparison. I would advise against
using color or graphics -- the brain is too good at "snapping" to an
expected perception when it is running in graphics mode instead of symbolic
mode.

On Thu, Nov 8, 2018 at 4:41 AM Dmitry Petukhov via bitcoin-dev <
bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

>
> > Copying addresses to the clipboard should be discouraged, rather than
> > supported.
>
> Do you know any reasonably convenient mechanism for end user to
> transfer an address from, say, a web page to the wallet address
> input field ?
>
> The clipboard is just a low-hanging fruit for malware, anyway. It just
> the most easy point to replace an address. If the computer is
> compromized, malware can edit the web page in the memory of the browser
> process, for example. If it shown as QR code, malware can decode,
> detect that it is an address, and replace the image of QR code.
>
> I think that the only way to protect from this is to add some form of
> authentication for an address - 2fa (transfer checksum via second
> channel), visual fingerprints for addresses, that will are hard to
> detect (and hence, replace) for malware, signing the destination address
> with the key of an address that is already known and checking the
> signature, etc.
>
> The problem will be to come up with an address authentication procedure
> that will be convenient for users and widely supported, as a result.
> _______________________________________________
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> bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>

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