"a$$word" LITERALLY SAVED PayPal | Prime Reacts

So, literally "It works on my machine"

Great article, what a writer that dude is. Even better having it read to me as a bedtime story.

Ik the math looks very complicated, but basically it uses the cool fact that a polymomial of degree N is uniquely defined by N+1 points. In other words, if you give me N + 1 points on an N polynomial, I can reconstruct the whole polynomial and evaluate it for *any* value I want. For instance, a line is uniquely defined by 2 points. Similary, there's only 1 unique quadratic that goes through any 3 points you choose. So what the secret sharing thing does is it gives all 8 people their own unique points on a quadratic function (degree 2 polynomial), and basically any 3 of them can then completely recreate the function and find the key (which is, by construction, f(0)) Edit: the original explanation in the article is good in the sense that it tells you exactly *how* to generate such a shared secret, but it doesn't explain well as to *why* it works

3am at a darkened cubicle is never how you want to start a story ngl

The guy that wrote this deserves a fucken award for that article, the storytelling, the twists, the characters, a$$word, everything was top tier

Probably one of the best articles you've reacted to! Well written and a damn good story!

Nobody in the world would ever expect password inputs to be SECRETLY truncated. This is insane. Who programmed that?

To answer the question at 14:55 "what would happen if 6 out of your 8 people were on the same plane" When you implement systems like this, you make sure that never happens. If you need to send more than 5 people from that group to the same place, at the same time, you send them via different airlines, trains, cars, whatever, spaced far enough apart that the chances of a crash involving all of them is essentially zero. If you are implementing a system THIS secure, chances are you have the budget to deal with this kind of invonvenience.

There needs be a website dedicated to “bringing production down” stories. They hit you in the feels. SO HARD.

This is why 'availability' is one of the pillars of security, along with confidentiality and authenticity.