Memorize a 128-bit AES key in 5 minutes.

I designed a mnemonic scheme inspired by the PAO technique and the Method of loci used by memory competition athletes.

128 = 5 × (6 + 5 + 6 + 7) + 8

Thus, each triplet of bytes in the key (24 bits) is encoded as a short phrase designed to imprint a whimsical, memorable image in your brain:

[subject][location][action][object]
  6 bits   5 bits   6 bits  7 bits

For example:

Taylor Swift, aboard a pirate ship in a stormy sea, punching a singing llama

Who could forget that? 🙃😜

You need to remember just 5 of these images (use your fingers while memorizing to improve recall), plus a single-byte "magic number."

My experiments so far show that the average person can totally do this within 5 minutes.

128-bit AES encryption is currently considered impossible to brute force and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

• newkey.sh: Generate a new 128-bit key and its mnemonic encoding
• recall.sh: Extract the key from your memory

You need fzf for the recall script to work.

Install it with:

• brew install fzf if you're on Mac, or
• Download from here, or
• Use your favorite package manager.

• Don't cherry-pick your phrases. Just embrace the randomness and go with the first or second set that newkey.sh generates. If you try to be "smart", you'll compromise the entropy, and your key will not be secure.
• Don't store the key or generated phrases in a file or take screenshots. The whole point is for your brain to be the only storage facility.
• Don't ever run these scripts in public or on an untrusted machine.
• Do practice recall several times on the first day, then once daily for a week, once weekly for a month, and monthly thereafter.