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Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG
Hi all,

I was wondering if native English speakers can help me out in finding 'the
right' 5 letter words which can be used in an binary to words encoder/decoder,
which then can be used with GnuPG encrypted binary files, so that these
(preferably small binary blobs) messages can then be send over telephone, radio
or as letter/fax.

I already contacted my Golang programmer who wrote me yesterday such an
encoder/decoder and I have already created a dictionary with German 5 letter
words, which are IMHO easy to speak and they contain no 'offensive' etc. words.

The encoder uses for every byte combination [0-255] a single 5 letter word. For
sure, this is not so effective as codegroups[1] but IMHO faster to speak and to
write down.

Here is a very small GnuPG symmetrically encrypted message, run through the
encoder:

Leser Aroma Algen Angel Album Ahorn Fasan Folie Geste Insel
Kreis Umzug Xenia Katze Rille Sinus Gummi Adler Lende Torte
Mappe Balsa Sorte Album Insel Venus Quote Lampe Onkel Sinus
Laube Anzug Heike Hitze Lager Knauf Gitta Mensa Hitze Haube
Wonne Ruder Maler Ampel Mulde Platz Alina Alina Eimer Hecht
Blatt Biene Nebel Kraut Erbse Zweig Stadt Zweig Natur Stoff
Fleck Pferd Sinus Pudel Wange Wagen Index Leser Teich Pferd
Album Seide Tempo Pokal Couch Dauer Nadel Knopf Nager Suppe
Boden Anton Ziege Musik Platz Serie Geist Xenia Lurch Platz
Sirup Gleis Felge Musik Platz Henne Adler Dogge Kugel Forum
Salto Gabel

What I need now is kind folks looking here at the 'alpha' wordlist:
https://github.com/dwyl/english-words and sieve out with this small
Python program, or something else

|import fileinput
|N = 5
|for line in fileinput.input():
| for word in line.split():
| if len(word) == N:
| print word

5 letter words and then manually select the best ones, which native English
speakers could easily listen to and write down.

Once I have the list I will then create the English version of the software
and publish it, along with the German version, on my keybase page.

[1] https://www.fourmilab.ch/codegroup/

Best regards
Stefan


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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Ajax wrote:

> Are there enough five letter words in the word lists available at
> eff.org/dice?

Thanks a lot! The short list has 782 five letter words, perfect!

So I will then select 256 of them which are easy (for me) to
read ... :-)

Best regards
Stefan

--
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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Stefan Claas via Gnupg-users wrote:

> Ajax wrote:
>
> > Are there enough five letter words in the word lists available at
> > eff.org/dice?
>
> Thanks a lot! The short list has 782 five letter words, perfect!
>
> So I will then select 256 of them which are easy (for me) to
> read ... :-)

O.k., I have uploaded the German version and would like to ask if ML members
can test it a bit. I already did that under Win7 Pro and Win10 Pro and would
like to hear if it works fine under macOS and Linux.

<https://keybase.pub/stefan_claas/software/binary2words-German-version/>

Regards
Stefan

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Stefan Claas via Gnupg-users wrote:

> Ajax wrote:
>
> > Are there enough five letter words in the word lists available at
> > eff.org/dice?
>
> Thanks a lot! The short list has 782 five letter words, perfect!
>
> So I will then select 256 of them which are easy (for me) to
> read ... :-)

Due to a lenghtly discussion in Usenet, with native English speakers,
I decided againt an English version and will go instead for NATO/HEX,
which allows for faster and error free transfer via phone, radio, etc.

Regards
Stefan

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Stefan Claas wrote:

> Due to a lenghtly discussion in Usenet, with native English speakers,
> I decided againt an English version and will go instead for NATO/HEX,
> which allows for faster and error free transfer via phone, radio, etc.

Here is an output from a small encrypted NaCl secretbox blob with 'sender.exe':

Seven-One Nine-Foxtrot One-Nine Bravo-Two Echo-Five
Eight-Zero Five-Zero Delta-Six Delta-Alfa Four-Delta
Bravo-Three Charlie-One Delta-Foxtrot Bravo-Delta Zero-Bravo
Foxtrot-Four Delta-Six Three-Four Charlie-One Three-Four
Bravo-Two Five-Eight Bravo-Seven Charlie-Three Two-Four
Bravo-Three Five-Two Echo-Nine Three-Zero Four-Echo
Zero-Foxtrot Echo-Foxtrot Zero-Alfa Zero-Delta Bravo-Six
Eight-Echo Echo-Six Foxtrot-Two Three-Three Charlie-Four
Seven-Five Alfa-Nine Echo-Six Charlie-Six Nine-Nine
Seven-Two Five-Three Seven-Delta Four-Alfa Five-Foxtrot
Bravo-Alfa


The listener then simply types the values as HEX into his editor of choice,
like so:

71 9F 19 B2 E5
80 50 D6 DA 4D
B3 C1 DF BD 0B
F4 D6 34 C1 34
B2 58 B7 C3 24
B3 52 E9 30 4E
0F EF 0A 0D B6
8E E6 F2 33 C4
75 A9 E6 C6 99
72 53 7D 4A 5F
BA

Then he / she uses the 'receiver.exe' program to convert the HEX values back
into a binary blob. :-)

Regards
Stefan

--
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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
> Due to a lenghtly discussion in Usenet, with native English
> speakers, I decided againt an English version and will go instead for
> NATO/HEX, which allows for faster and error free transfer via phone,
> radio, etc.

You can do a *lot* better than that. This is a solved problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGP_word_list

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> > Due to a lenghtly discussion in Usenet, with native English
> > speakers, I decided againt an English version and will go instead for
> > NATO/HEX, which allows for faster and error free transfer via phone,
> > radio, etc.
>
> You can do a *lot* better than that. This is a solved problem.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGP_word_list
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gnupg-users mailing list
> Gnupg-users@gnupg.org
> http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users

I don't agree with you, because due to dialects spoken in every
country (even in the US) the PGP wordlist is not suitable IMHO
for non-native English speakers and international comms, which
the NATO alphabet is perfect for!

There's also mnemonicode available which I first considered to
translate into German language but I gave up because it is to
much work.

https://github.com/singpolyma/mnemonicode

Regards
Stefan

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
> I don't agree with you, because due to dialects spoken in every
> country (even in the US) the PGP wordlist is not suitable IMHO
> for non-native English speakers and international comms, which
> the NATO alphabet is perfect for!

It was designed by a computational linguist specifically to be resistant
to these concerns. There's an academic paper written about it. You
should read it.

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> > I don't agree with you, because due to dialects spoken in every
> > country (even in the US) the PGP wordlist is not suitable IMHO
> > for non-native English speakers and international comms, which
> > the NATO alphabet is perfect for!
>
> It was designed by a computational linguist specifically to be resistant
> to these concerns. There's an academic paper written about it. You
> should read it.

Yes, for native English speakers ...

Let's assume the following, I would use the PGP wordlist and give
my software for a test to a German user and let's say a Japanese
user. Both of them have basic English skills.

If one person then speaks the words from the PGP wordlist to the
other and he / she has to write down these words you can be sure
that this is *not* 100 percent error free and fast, in comparison
to my approach, which requires only to learn six easy words and
ten digits (which can be accomplished by a six year old kid).

Regards
Stefan

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
> Let's assume the following...

Let's not assume anything. You either have users in such conditions or
you don't. Design for the users you do have, not the hypothetical users
you imagine having. I can tell you from bitter experience, hypothetical
users virtually never appear in real life. The users who *do* appear
normally have use cases you've never even imagined.


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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> > Let's assume the following...
>
> Let's not assume anything. You either have users in such conditions or
> you don't. Design for the users you do have, not the hypothetical users
> you imagine having. I can tell you from bitter experience, hypothetical
> users virtually never appear in real life. The users who *do* appear
> normally have use cases you've never even imagined.

Well, o.k., at least users using my software have to possibilty to
change the wordlist to their liking ... ;-)

Regards
Stefan

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Re: Help needed - for a binary to words encoder/decoder for GnuPG [ In reply to ]
Stefan Claas via Gnupg-users wrote:

> Stefan Claas wrote:
>
> > Due to a lenghtly discussion in Usenet, with native English speakers,
> > I decided againt an English version and will go instead for NATO/HEX,
> > which allows for faster and error free transfer via phone, radio, etc.
>
> Here is an output from a small encrypted NaCl secretbox blob with
> 'sender.exe':
>
> Seven-One Nine-Foxtrot One-Nine Bravo-Two
> Echo-Five Eight-Zero Five-Zero Delta-Six Delta-Alfa
> Four-Delta Bravo-Three Charlie-One Delta-Foxtrot Bravo-Delta
> Zero-Bravo Foxtrot-Four Delta-Six Three-Four Charlie-One
> Three-Four Bravo-Two Five-Eight Bravo-Seven Charlie-Three
> Two-Four Bravo-Three Five-Two Echo-Nine Three-Zero
> Four-Echo Zero-Foxtrot Echo-Foxtrot Zero-Alfa Zero-Delta
> Bravo-Six Eight-Echo Echo-Six Foxtrot-Two Three-Three
> Charlie-Four Seven-Five Alfa-Nine Echo-Six Charlie-Six
> Nine-Nine Seven-Two Five-Three Seven-Delta Four-Alfa
> Five-Foxtrot Bravo-Alfa
>
>
> The listener then simply types the values as HEX into his editor of choice,
> like so:
>
> 71 9F 19 B2 E5
> 80 50 D6 DA 4D
> B3 C1 DF BD 0B
> F4 D6 34 C1 34
> B2 58 B7 C3 24
> B3 52 E9 30 4E
> 0F EF 0A 0D B6
> 8E E6 F2 33 C4
> 75 A9 E6 C6 99
> 72 53 7D 4A 5F
> BA
>
> Then he / she uses the 'receiver.exe' program to convert the HEX values back
> into a binary blob. :-)

O.k. the software is uploaded to my keybase account.

https://keybase.pub/stefan_claas/software/bin2nato/

Regards
Stefan

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