Spending a lot of time this week setting up various pieces of bug tracking software, I kept forgetting what passwords I’d given the default admin accounts. Instead of doing the easy thing and just changing the passwords in that database, with MySQL’s handy MD5 function for example, I thought it would be more fun to just Google the hashes in the database and see what the results were.
I have never had a more voyeuristic experience with Google (um, honest). Even some really obscure passwords had matches. I guess this is to be expected, what with the population of the internet these days, but weird and dark parts of my mind started thinking about the phenomenon.
I soon started picturing some sort of Web 2.0 service where you logged all your deepest, darkest secrets, or rather hashes thereof, in some central repository. Just to get the stuff off your chest, like. Maybe you’ve killed someone or had sex with your cat, I’m not judging. This site would just be a place to store one-way hashes. But every once in a while, you’d find someone with an identical hash – someone sharing your exact predicament. Maybe you both a76346db4190eb2f8e17e690966e4535 or even 63d4a90f011af1ba915177ec2b6288fd. And maybe it’d be a weight off your chest, knowing that you weren’t the only one to b674f4aea55906513041ba87cff36ce2. Wouldn’t it be nice, knowing you’re not alone?
I think so. cryptopeepshow.com, coming soon.
