
Your 4-Digit PIN Is Fine: Device-Bound Keys on ESP32-S3
Why PBKDF2 iterations can't protect a 4-digit PIN on a microcontroller, and how an eFuse-HMAC device secret plus HKDF stops offline brute force.
Notes
Hardening notes from real production deployments — mutual TLS, Content Security Policy, and deception techniques like tarpits and honeypots that slow down or trap malicious traffic before it reaches anything that matters.
10 posts about this topic

Why PBKDF2 iterations can't protect a 4-digit PIN on a microcontroller, and how an eFuse-HMAC device secret plus HKDF stops offline brute force.

How a hardware password manager authenticates every vault file before it decrypts: encrypt-then-MAC, verify-before-decrypt, and fail-closed reads.

Guide to running obfs4 and WebTunnel Tor bridges on Linux with Nginx camouflage, firewall hardening, Prometheus monitoring, and CrowdSec.

Configure WireGuard VPN on MikroTik RouterOS with full IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack. Access your home network with native IPv6 from any connection.

Configure a MikroTik honeypot to detect port scanners, log malicious activity, and auto-block attackers using firewall address lists and the RAW table.

Implement an Nginx tarpit to slow down and trap malicious bots, vulnerability scanners, and brute-force attackers. Includes CrowdSec integration.

Deep dive into QUIC and HTTP/3 — technical architecture, security features, and step-by-step Nginx configuration for production deployment.

Master Content Security Policy from zero to A+ — nonces, hashes, strict-dynamic, Trusted Types, bypass prevention, and production Nginx configs.

Serve virtual files in Nginx without disk I/O. Covers root vs alias vs try_files, named locations, Kubernetes health endpoints, and containers.

Implement Mutual TLS (mTLS) with Nginx — create a CA, generate client certificates, configure CRL and OCSP revocation, and enable Zero Trust.
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