Some new updates for ProgramRadios/DMRTools involving encryption keys.
GIF Demo
With the OEM codeplug editor, you have to type in raw hex values yourself. With mine, you can still do that, or you can type in text in the second text box which will be hashed and the hash will be used for the key instead. Note that the input still has to be random in some way, but now it can be more human friendly.
Notice the realtime display in the bottom right of exactly what is input to the hash function.
I’ll make a blog post later about how to generate and manage keys using this hash method, and there are even higher-level methods coming eventually for key management.
Improvement?
If nothing else, it’s better than OEM on user interaction alone. Personally, I think the ability to generate the bytes for the key from a cryptographic hash justifies all the effort so far.
I was mentioning this project to another ham the other day, and he asked me “why would you start a new codeplug editor from scratch?”.
This is why - to add higher level concepts, to automate, and to improve the general user experience.
Programming radios, especially DMR radios, sucks - but it doesn’t have to.
Encryption for hams?
Encryption part is for the commercial users, don’t worry.