Bubble Babble
Bubble Babble Encoding
Bubble Babble Encoding is a binary data encoding, used by computer security solutions as Secure Shell (SSH). The encoding uses alternation of consonants and vowels to encode binary data into gibberish words that can be pronounced more easily than arbitrary lists of hexadecimal digits. The original specification with corrections is an IETF Internet Draft named huima-01..[1]
For instance, the string "Pineapple" encodes into "xigak-nyryk-humil-bosek-sonax". The appearance of "x" at the beginning and end of this string is not accidental, as the letter x is used exclusively in this encoding to delimit the encoded string. Each two bytes in the input sequence results in the output of five characters and a dash. According to the original author, the name is a pun which combines the name of a video game classic Bubble Bobble and the fact that the generated text keys can be pronounced but are gibberish, i.e. babbling.[2]
Multiple independent implementations of Bubble Babble encoding exist, for example Digest::BubbleBabble for Perl, written by Benjamin Trott[3]; and for Python[4]. The world's most popular SSH implementation OpenSSH supports Bubble Babble[5][6]
Bubble Babble in itself is not a cryptographic function and hence it cannot be used to implement a security protocol on its own. It has a purely supportive function in making random bit strings more accessible to human operators by providing a recognizable and pronounceable[7] format for them.
References[edit]
- ↑ huima-01.txt, IETF Internet Draft
- ↑ What is Bubble Babble? Wisegeek.com article
- ↑ BubbleBabble.pm at cpan.org
- ↑ Python recipe at ActiveState.com
- ↑ SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide. O'Reilly Media, February 2001, p. 236
- ↑ ssh-keygen manual page, part of OpenSSH distribution
- ↑ Does a Pronounceable Encoding Exist?, a StackOverflow question
External links[edit]
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