Re: The SHA256 of "xy\n" (ASCII, no CRLF) contains 1337, ACBAD in za, and I am 1aa
- From
Marc Branchaud <marcnarc@xiplink.com>
- Date
- Jan 23, 2026, 21:57 UTC
- Message-ID
- <e54a3865-b75b-4c28-b3a3-62fcb02bbfb5@xiplink.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <20260123210643.GA2728629@coredump.intra.peff.net>
Deep Crypto is obviously far more insidious than anyone expected. How could we have not realized that our SHA IDs were so subversive?
I mean, ab6edf73? Really? Who ever thought that was even remotely OK?
We need to immediately replace our SHA IDs with sequences of semantically-neutral symbols. I suggest we use non-hex integers to represent the value of each byte (hexadecimal letters being the work of the devil -- I mean, "hex" is right there in the name!), and use something neutral like □ (U25A1) as a separator (but only by default; this symbol must be configurable). For example:
12deadbeef45 --> 12□222□173□190□239□45
(I realize that numbers themselves can carry deeply harmful baggage, but I'm hoping the integers from 1 to 255 aren't too offensive. OK, maybe tolerating 111 is asking too much...)
I only hope we can spare future generations from our modern deprivations.
M.
On 2026-01-23 14:06, Jeff King wrote:
Show 19 quoted lines
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 09:16:46PM +0100, Klaus Sembritzki wrote: > >> $ # My initials (ks): 1aa >> $ echo ks | sha256sum >> $ 1aa44e718d5bc9b7ff2003dbbb6f154e16636d5c2128ffce4751af5124b65337 >> >> $ # 50566750337 >> $ echo thinking | sha256sum >> $ 50566750337beb9e98e553fd9196d10576f9eb0cbc6b66e2586b9d73af4f352f > > Oh man, I've got deadbeef! > > $ echo jk35252822 | sha256sum > 33f1a74529870456c56ad97c59cfed6bdeadbeef9b9bc3f4ff49bb203e36f96b > > What could it all mean? > > -Peff >