generate_diceware_password() built the password from 3 words out of a 96
word list plus a single digit: 96^3 x 10 = 8,847,360 combinations, about
23 bits.
That one password is the desktop login, the 'free' account password, and
the only thing standing in front of the Hub, which runs as root and
displays the root password, the SSH passphrase, the RTL password and the
Vaultwarden admin token. 23 bits is thin for something that valuable, and
the rate limiting in front of it was weaker than intended (see "hub: make
the login lockout that LOGIN_FAIL_MAX described").
Now 4 words plus 2 digits: 96^4 x 100 = 8,493,465,600, about 33 bits,
for the cost of one more word to write down.
- iso/installer.py: generate_diceware_password().
- modules/credentials.nix: the three fallback generators in
root-password-setup, free-password-setup and free-password-migration,
so a machine provisioned without the installer gets the same strength.
Affects new installs only; existing passwords are untouched.
Checked by running the real thing. The installer function was exercised
2000 times: 96 words in the list, always word-word-word-word-NN, 33.0
bits. For the three services, the generator lines were taken from the
script the evaluated module really produces (nix eval on the nixpkgs
revision flake.lock pins) and run 1500 times each: 96 words in each
list, always word-word-word-word-NN, every two-digit suffix from 00 to 99
seen, and no repeated password.
- Replace plain-text write of new_root_password in api_security_reset()
with scrypt-hashed storage via _hash_password(), matching how the free
password is already handled.
- Return new_root_password in the API response so the user sees it once
before it is irreversibly hashed on disk.
- Teach _resolve_credential() to detect scrypt hashes and display a
human-readable placeholder instead of raw hex in the Hub credentials UI.
- Harden root-password-setup systemd service: if the secrets file already
contains a hash, skip chpasswd so a manual restart never sets the hash
as the literal login password.
Security Fix
Contributor
copilot-swe-agent[bot]andnaturallaw777