https://github.com/ansemjo/randomart
generate plaintext pictures from a hash, similar to OpenSSH's keygen randomart
https://github.com/ansemjo/randomart
digest python randomart shake256
Last synced: 5 months ago
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generate plaintext pictures from a hash, similar to OpenSSH's keygen randomart
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/ansemjo/randomart
- Owner: ansemjo
- License: mit
- Created: 2018-11-23T13:12:19.000Z (over 7 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-11-11T08:22:45.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-08-23T22:21:13.030Z (10 months ago)
- Topics: digest, python, randomart, shake256
- Language: Python
- Size: 72.3 KB
- Stars: 21
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 4
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# randomart.py
A script to present BLAKE2b hashes as small ASCII-art pictures, similarly to OpenSSH's
[randomart](https://superuser.com/q/22535).
This allows easier verification by humans but may not be as secure as a bytewise comparison of the
digest!
See the paper [Hash Visualization: a New Technique to improve Real-World Security][perrig]
for more information on the concept of random art.
The paper [The drunken bishop: An analysis of the OpenSSH fingerprint visualization
algorithm][bishop] analyses the OpenSSH implementation in more detail.
Just to be clear: the input is passed into a hash function and its output is then used to generate the
ASCII art. By virtue of BLAKE2b being a cryptographically secure hash function, *any* change in input
will lead to a radically different output.
It should also be explicitly noted that my algorithm is _similar_ but not _identical_ to the "drunken
bishop" walk of the OpenSSH implementation. The implementation at hand:
- flips sides at the borders, which turns the field into a torus
- moves in all possible directions with distance 1, not only diagonally
- does not mark start (`S`) and end (`E`) and uses a different character palette
I have not performed any similar analysis[2][^2] but would expect my implementation to
perform no worse.
## installation
Install the latest version with pip directly from GitHub:
pip install git+https://github.com/ansemjo/randomart
Or from [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/randomart/):
pip install randomart
## usage
The script expects a file in the first positional argument or otherwise simply reads from standard
input. It is thus best suitable for usage in a pipe:
echo 'Hello, World!' | randomart.py
There are two flags to control the output:
- `--ascii` use only ASCII characters for the box frame
- `--hash` - print the computed digest before the randomart picture
Otherwise use `randomart.py --help` for usage help.
### as a library
If you want to use your own hash you can import from `random_art.randomart`:
```python
from random_art.randomart import draw, drunkenwalk
...
# generate your hash digest
digest = ...
# generate randomart, HASHNAME must be 10 characters
art = draw(drunkenwalk(digest), HASHNAME)
print(art)
```
[perrig]: http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~adrian/projects/validation/validation.pdf "Perrig A. and Song D., 1999, International Workshop on Cryptographic Techniques and E-Commerce (CrypTEC '99)"
[bishop]: http://www.dirk-loss.de/sshvis/drunken_bishop.pdf "Dirk Loss, Tobias Limmer, Alexander von Gernler, 2009"