Cryptnos for Windows

Version 1.1.1, Date of Release: July 23, 2010

Cryptnos for Windows News | Cryptnos for Windows FAQ | Cryptnos at Google Code

NOTE: There is a known bug in the new update checking system introduced in Version 1.1. Full details can be found in this news item, as well as instructions on how to implement the workaround or how to downgrade to Cryptnos 1.0. We believe version 1.1.1 will fix the issue, but since we have not been able to recreate it, please understand that the fix may be untested.

System Requirements

• Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework; only the runtime or redistributable package is required. .NET 2.0 requires:
  • Windows 98, 98 SE, ME, 2000 SP3 or higher, XP SP2 or higher, Server 2003 or 2008, or any flavor of Vista or Windows 7
  • Windows Installer 2.0 for Windows 98/ME, 3.0 for all other OSes (3.1 recommended)
  • Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher
  • 280MB disc space for the x86 version, 610MB for the x64 version
• About 2.3MB of free disk space
• No hard memory or processor limits are known beyond the OS and .NET’s requirements, but obviously the more the merrier

Note: Cryptnos may work on non-Windows platforms with a .NET 2.0 compatible framework like Mono. However, this is untested beyond running it through MoMA (which it passed). Use on a non-Windows platform is considered unsupported.

The implementations of the Whirlpool and Tiger hash algorithms have been lovingly stolen from the Legion of the Bouncy Castle Crypto API.

Features

• Generates strong, pseudo-random yet repeatable “passphrases” using a variety of cryptographic hash algorithms
• Supported hashing algorithms: MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, RIPEMD-160, Whirlpool (2003 revision), and Tiger (1995 original, not “Tiger2″)
• Combines site domain or mnemonic (we call it the “site token”) with the user’s “secret token” to produce a unique passphrase for every site
• Further modify the generated passphrase for character class or length constraints (e.g. limit to only alphanumerics and a maximum of 12 characters)
• Stores password generating parameters securely in the Windows registry using cryptographic hashes and strong AES-256 encryption
• Cross-platform import/export mechanism allows parameters to be copied from one instance of Cryptnos on one machine to another instance on another machine, strongly encrypting the export file using AES-256
• Integrated tooltip-based help
• Automatic update checks

Screenshots

Download Cryptnos

You can download the current version of Cryptnos from the following links. A GnuPG digital signature and various hashes of the file are also provided for verification.

Cryptnos is released under version 2.0 of the GNU General Public License. Thus, you can also download the C# source code. This is a full Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 project “solution” with all the necessary support files.

Cryptnos now has an official Google Code project page, as well as a public Subversion repository. While we will continue to post the latest source archive here, you can check out the latest working code with the following command. Please note that “trunk” builds may contain bugs, so you should only use stable releases unless you know what you’re doing.

svn checkout http://cryptnos-for-windows.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ cryptnos-for-windows-read-only

Installation Instructions

Simply download and run the setup installer (after verifying the digital signature and/or hashes, of course). It’s as simple as that. Uninstalling is just as easy; either run the uninstall program from the Start menu or remove the program through the Add/Remove Programs interface.

Cryptnos is not designed to be used as a “portable” app, or one that can be placed on removable media (such as a USB memory stick) and transferred cleanly from machine to machine. This is due in large part to the severe security implications of moving your passwords from one machine to another. Cryptnos should only ever be run on a system that you own and trust, one that you can reasonably guarantee to be free of viruses, malware, or surreptitious logging. To use a password generator on a system you do not trust is not only counter-intuitive, but extremely dangerous. Therefore the use of Cryptnos as a portable app is strongly discouraged, and we no longer provide instructions on how to do so. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Reporting Bugs and Requesting Enhancements

Bug reports and enhancements requests can be made via the Issue Tracker on our Google Code project page.

Version History

• Version 1.0:
  • Initial release
• Version 1.1:
  • Introduced cross-platform export format. Exports from this version onward should now be readable by compatible versions of Cryptnos on other platforms (Java, Google Android, etc.). Read-only support for original export format is still included, but new export format is not backward compatible.
  • Added the Copy password to clipboard checkbox. When checked, clicking the Generate button now copies the generated password to the system clipboard, a behavior introduced in Cryptnos for Android 1.0. The default is unchecked, which replicates the behavior of Cryptnos for Windows 1.0.
  • Added update check feature that checks the Cryptnos site periodically to see if there are newer versions of the application available.
  • Minor improvements to UI appearance and error checking.
  • Added Legion of the Bouncy Castle Crypto API license information to the About dialog, in addition to the GPL 2 license info specific to Cryptnos that was already there.
• Version 1.1.1:
  • Bug fix: Improved error handling and reporting for update checking module.
  • Added “debug mode” flag for advanced troubleshooting.
  • Minor code clean-up and error reporting improvements.