Topic: Vanitygen: Vanity bitcoin address generator/miner [v0.22] - page 143. (Read 1153383 times)

Consider:
-Your windows machine is completely PwnD, making any code that touched it untrustable and/or
-Your adversary can remotely access or physically steal the USB device and recover anything you've deleted or had in RAM (swap file).

Better still would be to disconnect all hard drives and storage media on the target machine, and only boot and run off a live CD with a compile environment. You then only have to figure out how to get vanitygen code to the machine securely (removable non-writable media), and how to get the address/privkeys off the machine securely (print, burn CD) without creating any persistent digital copy whatsoever.

If you don't actually need vanity addresses, easier is just to use the bitaddress HTML/JavaScript generator code offline.

That's just 1 byte more for the human readable public key. This isn't an issue. The compressed key is half the size of the uncompressed key in transactions and in the block chain. That saves a lot of space, which also translates into lower transaction fees in the long term.

I haven't read this entire thread, as it's simply too long to read.

Anyway - I decided to store some coins locally, and I decided the safest way would be to run VanityGen and produce adresses along with private keys on an air-gapped computer.

I have a 150MB ISO-image (grml64-small_2013.02.iso) that I've modified with WinISO to add a directory containing these files:

libcrypto.so.0.9.8
libpcre.so.3
readme.txt
vanitygen

Vanitygen is compiled with the instructions in the first post in this thread, from source.

readme.txt simply states:


This makes sure vanitygen searches in the current directory for libraries.

Now, simply run:


to find adresses containing '1mono'-prefix. Or choose any other prefix you'd like, but remember it should start with 1 (or at least so I think).

You will now get the bitcoin address and it's corresponding private key. All what you need now is to note down that key and address, whenever you feel like saving something to that address, just send some coins there. Whenever you want to redeem the coins, import the private key to your wallet. There's many guides for this, so I won't repeat that.

The files, after you've booted can be found in /lib/live/mount/medium/vanitygen if you used WinISO (On Windows 7) to put it in the root of the iso-image.

To prepare the USB disk (make it bootable and add iso), I used Universal USB Installer 1.9.3.0. (On windows 7)

Following these instructions, you should be able to create your own bootable vanitygen usb-stick, if you can't be arsed to do it, let me know, in this thread or on pm, and I'll make the iso available if there's any demand for it.

The reason it's safe to do this is that you run it on a machine with no network connection. Make sure to unplug the network cable, or disable the wifi. Then, when the address and private key is generated, once the machine is shut down, there's no trace left of your key, apart from what you have noted down.

Note that printing it with a printer, or taking a picture of the code with your telephone may expose you to other kind of attacks.

Air-gapped, live bootable USB seems very secure. Then check the balance with blockchain.info or any other block explorer site.

I'm curious why you want compressed keys (or what the purpose of a compressed key is, really). A compressed key is actually longer than an uncompressed key (52 characters vs 51 characters) so it won't save you any storage space.

Can the latest version (v0.22) make compressed keys? The ones that start with Letters and not 5 for the private key part. Sure I can convert it, but I'd want to generate a few hundred compressed keys (offline) for cold storage.

Perhaps should add that I have a 7970 card and running ubuntu 12.10 kernel 3.5.x

Catalyst 11.11 should do the trick

no one knows the answer for this?

Thanks i gave up though. The gpu is actually pretty good on these ivy bridges. Unless vanity also requires amd like bitcoin, then yeah

Ah! Makes sense I was at the end of a 12 hour python marathon - not thinking as I should. Thanks!

samr7 when are you going to fix the bug with the -X switch? if i want to create an address for an altcoin and specify the version with -X vanitygen says something like this (just an example)

You commented out just the segment you quoted? You would also have to find out where it is called and comment out that as well. Simply reduce the number from 6 to 1 and you should be good.

I had commented out that section, but the code kept hanging. I will try reducing to 1 or 0 so the code is still executing (but essentially useless) and see what difference that makes.

And yes, I do Folding@Home. As I said, this is not an actual attempt at a +28 char vanity address generation - it won't be running more than 24 hours. I was simply asking for info on how to modify the code.

Yes it can; lower the number or drop that code entirely.

If you want to waste CPU/GPU cycles, though, please do something like Folding@Home instead.

Change the < 6 to some smaller number.

Oh yeah, I understand that an address will never be found - finding the address is not my goal. I'm simply asking if the code can be modified to handle a larger string, and if so how?

A bitcoin address has a checksum to make sure that it is a valid address. If you are generating an address that is 30 characters long, the possibilities of getting your string and the checksum are zilch.

Waste a couple of weeks looking for a 12 character address before you go for ones near 30.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address

Can anyone explain what this bit of code is doing? (in pattern.c of the source)


It seems I'm hanging on this piece when trying to generate an address over 28 characters (And yes, yes, I realize it's a pipe dream to ever find anything close to that - let me have my fun!)

What version of ATI drivers do I need?

Pretty much. :/