Auto-completion functionality for seed phrase entry provides real benefit to the
user, reducing the number of keystrokes required and permitting quick re-entry
of mistyped words. In addition, unifying the number of keystrokes among words
improves security against acoustic side-channel attacks. To this end, three
new interactive mnemonic entry modes are introduced by this patch.
Each entry mode is optimized for a particular wordlist. The “short” mode, for
example, takes advantage of the fact that each word in the Monero wordlist is
uniquely identifiable by its first three letters. For MMGen’s default Electrum
wordlist, which lacks this unique substring property, the “minimal” mode was
developed to reduce keystrokes to a minimum while retaining the option of
obfuscating entry with pad characters.
Users who prefer not to use auto-completion may specify the “full” mode, which
emulates the previous default behavior.
Overview of the key entry modes:
- 'full' (all wordlists): words are typed in full and entered with the ENTER
or SPACE key, or by exceeding the pad character limit (see below).
- 'short' (BIP39, Monero): words are entered automatically once user types
UNIQ_SS_LEN (see below) valid word letters. 3-letter words in the BIP39
wordlist must be entered with the ENTER or SPACE key, or by exceeding the
pad character limit.
- 'fixed' (BIP39, Electrum): words are entered automatically once user types
UNIQ_SS_LEN characters in total. Words shorter than UNIQ_SS_LEN must be
padded to fit. Thus the total number of characters entered is the same for
all words.
- 'minimal' (Electrum): words are entered automatically once user types the
minimum number of characters required to uniquely identify a word (varies
from word to word). Words that are substrings of other words in the wordlist
must be entered with the ENTER or SPACE key, or by exceeding the pad
character limit. This is the only mode that checks user input letter by
letter.
Pad character limits by mode:
-----------------------------
short: 16
minimal: 16
full: longest_word - word_len
fixed: uniq_ss_len - word_len
Wordlist parameters:
--------------------
Parameter Electrum BIP39 XMRSEED
--------- -------- ----- -------
uniq_ss_len: 10 4 3
shortest_word: 3 3 4
longest word: 12 8 12
optimum mode: minimal fixed short
Default modes for each wordlist may be configured in 'mmgen.cfg' via the
'mnemonic_entry_modes' option.
Usage / testing:
$ mmgen-walletconv -i words
$ mmgen-walletconv -i bip39
$ mmgen-tool mn2hex_interactive fmt=mmgen mn_len=12 print_mn=1
$ mmgen-tool mn2hex_interactive fmt=bip39
$ mmgen-tool mn2hex_interactive fmt=xmrseed
$ test/unit_tests.py mn_entry
$ test/test.py -e input
- provides a convenient interface to selected methods in the mmgen.tool module
- Type `pydoc3 mmgen.tool.tool_api` for available methods and call signatures
## Examples:
### Initialize:
from mmgen.tool import tool_api
tool = tool_api()
### Utility methods:
# Skip user entropy gathering (not recommended)
tool.usr_randchars = 0
# Generate a random hex secret:
hexsec = tool.randhex()
# Reverse the hex string:
hexsec_rev = tool.hexreverse(hexsec)
# Get the HASH160 of the value:
sec_hash160 = tool.hash160(hexsec)
# Convert the value to base58 format:
sec_b58 = tool.hextob58(hexsec)
# Convert the value to base58 check format:
sec_b58chk = tool.hextob58chk(hexsec)
# Convert the byte specification '4G' to an integer:
four_g = tool.bytespec('4G')
# Convert the byte specification '4GB' to an integer:
four_gb = tool.bytespec('4GB')
### Key/address generation:
# List available coins:
print(' '.join(tool.coins))
# Initialize a coin/network pair:
proto = tool.init_coin('btc','mainnet')
# Print the available address types for current coin/network, along with a
# description. If tool.addrtype is unset, the first-listed will be used:
tool.print_addrtypes()
# Set the address type to P2PKH with compressed public key:
tool.addrtype = 'compressed'
# Generate the key and address:
wif = tool.hex2wif(hexsec)
addr = tool.wif2addr(wif)
# Generate an LTC regtest Segwit key and address:
proto = tool.init_coin('ltc','regtest')
tool.addrtype = 'segwit'
wif = tool.hex2wif(hexsec)
addr = tool.wif2addr(wif)
# Generate a random LTC regtest Bech32 key/address pair:
tool.addrtype = 'bech32'
wif,addr = tool.randpair()
### Mnemonic seed phrase generation:
# Generate an MMGen native mnemonic seed phrase:
mmgen_seed = tool.hex2mn(hexsec)
# Generate a BIP39 mnemonic seed phrase:
bip39_seed = tool.hex2mn(hexsec,fmt='bip39')
This patch reimplements the `mmgen-tool` commands `keyaddrlist2monerowallets`
and `syncmonerowallets`.
- to communicate with monerod, the helper daemon `monero-wallet-rpc` is now
used instead of `monero-wallet-cli`. The helper daemon is started and
stopped automatically
- wallet sync time is significantly reduced
- commands should now work under MSWin/MSYS2 (testing TBD)
- only 256-bit (25-word) new-style mnemonics are supported
Testing:
$ test/unit_tests.py baseconv
$ test/tooltest2.py hex2mn mn2hex
$ test/scrambletest.py pw
$ test/test.py ref_xmrseed_25_passwdgen_3
$ test/test.py ref_passwdfile_chk_xmrseed_25
The following operations are supported:
Generate a random Monero mnemonic:
$ mmgen-tool mn_rand256 fmt=xmrseed
Generate a Monero mnemonic from hexadecimal data:
$ mmgen-tool hex2mn deadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeef fmt=xmrseed
Convert the resulting mnemonic back to hexadecimal data:
$ mmgen-tool mn2hex 'viewpoint donuts ardent template unveil agile meant unafraid urgent athlete rustled mime azure jaded hawk baby jagged haystack baby jagged haystack ramped oncoming point template' fmt=xmrseed
Note that the result of the reversal does not match the original input. This
is because input data is reduced to a spendkey before conversion so that a
canonical seed phrase is produced. This is required because Monero seeds,
unlike ordinary wallet seeds, are tied to a concrete key/address pair. The
spendkey can be generated directly using the `hex2wif` command:
$ mmgen-tool --coin=xmr hex2wif deadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeefdeadbeef
Generate a list of passwords in Monero mnemonic format with ID 'mymonero':
$ mmgen-passgen -f xmrseed 'mymonero' 1-10
