---
title: CodeStar
layout: default
created: 2009-02-02 21:59:35 +0100
updated: 2009-02-02 21:59:35 +0100
toc: false
tags:
  - know-how
  - software
  - encryption
---
**Homepage:** [codestar.de](http://www.codestar.de/)

There's a software called *CodeStar* which [claims to use the RSA-algorithm](http://www.codestar.de/html/menu/startseite_s2_frameset.html)
to encrypt up to 8 of your passwords using a single password (you should remember). It then lets you print out a
colourful card which is the size of a credit card for you to have all your important passwords at hand when you're on
the road.

The bad thing: There's nothing encrypted. You just have to think of a password which consists of different letters.
Then you type up to 8 different passwords which can be up to the length of your master password. These passwords are
printed around the letters of your master password, e.g. the first letter of the first password is printed to the top
left of the first letter of your master password. The 1st letter of the second password is printed to the top of the
1st letter of the master password and so on. The unused fields are filled with random data.

This then looks like this:

![]({{ site.url }}/assets/cskartenbildklein.gif)

So let's say your master password is `LINUXMASTER` (no duplicate letters allowed!) and your passwords or PINs are:
`tEsT`, `secret`, `0815`, `4711` and `windowsuser`. To get one of the passwords, you'd follow the letters of your
master password and find this: (random data omitted!)

~~~
ts0 Ee8 sc1 Tr5  e   t
 L4  I7  N1  U1  X   M   A   S   T   E   R
  w   i   n   d   o   w   s   u   s   e   r
~~~

Since I think 20€ for such a piece of software (which claims to use the [RSA-Alogrithm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA)
when it's not) is a bit too much, I spent 20-30 minutes in OpenOffice Calc and came up with this:

![]({{ site.url }}/assets/codestarooo.png)

**Download:** [codestar.ods]({{ site.url }}/assets/codestar.ods)