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Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Why does SSH send 100 packets per keystroke?

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Here are the 5 most prevalent themes of the opinions expressed in the Hacker News discussion:

1. Overuse of Specific AI-Generated Phrases

A recurring theme is the noticeable and frequent use of specific, often corporate-sounding phrases in LLM-generated text, leading to the perception of a distinct "AI voice." Users cite phrases like "smoking gun," "delve," and "lines up perfectly" as telltale signs.

  • lloydatkinson: "smoking gun, you're absolutely right, good question, em dash, 'it isn't just foo, it's also bar', real honest truth, brutal truth, underscores the issue, delves into, more em dashes, <20 different hr/corporate/cringe phrases>. It's nauseating."
  • MaxBarraclough: "That's the point though, it doesn't reflect human usage of the word. If delve were so commonly used by humans too, we wouldn't be discussing how it's overused by LLMs."

2. The Debate Over SSH Keystroke Obfuscation and Performance

The core technical debate revolves around the trade-offs of the SSH keystroke timing obfuscation feature. While many defend it as a necessary security measure against privacy leaks, others argue it imposes unnecessary overhead, especially for non-interactive or high-performance use cases.

  • dathinab: "please never do that (in production) if anyone half way serious tries they will be able to break you encryption end find what you typed this isn't a hypothetical niche case obfuscation mechanism, it's a people broke SSH then a fix was found case."
  • eikenberry: "It is to prevent timing attacks but there are many ssh use cases where it is 100% computer to computer communications where there is no key based timing attack possible."

3. The Ethics and Practicality of 'Unnecessary' Security

Closely tied to the SSH debate, users discuss the philosophy of applying security measures universally versus only in high-risk scenarios. This includes questioning whether the performance and bandwidth cost of features like keystroke obfuscation is justified for users who do not face a credible threat model.

  • Calvin02: "Threats exist in both trusted and untrusted environments though. This feels like a really niche use case for SSH. Exposing this more broadly could lead to set-it-and-forget-it scenarios and ultimately make someone less secure."
  • smallmancontrov: "Resource-constrained environments might be niche to you, but they are not niche to the world."

4. Criticism of Using LLMs for Technical Debugging

A significant portion of the discussion expresses skepticism or outright disapproval of using LLMs like Claude for deep technical debugging. Critics argue this reliance is "lazy," hinders learning, and that traditional tools like Wireshark would have been more efficient and educational.

  • JohnLeitch: "I argue that, had they not run to an LLM, they likely would have solved this problem more efficiently, and would have learned more along the way. Forgive me for being so critical, but the LLM use here simply comes off as lazy."
  • rjh29: "ChatGPT gaslit the OP telling it there was no such thing as keystroke chafing. So yes, in this case it would have been better to do the work oneself."

5. The Inappropriateness of Using SSH for High-Performance Games

While not the central topic, a strong and recurring opinion is that using SSH as the transport protocol for a high-performance, low-latency game is a fundamentally flawed design choice. Users suggest more suitable alternatives like UDP-based libraries (e.g., GameNetworkingSockets, QUIC) or even a custom solution.

  • raggi: "I am working on a high-performance game that runs over ssh. WAT. Please no."
  • rurban: "High performance with ssh and wish? For sure not. Rather use UDP over secure sockets. Or just normal sockets. Even Claude would come up with much faster code than the ssh/wish nonsense."

🚀 Project Ideas

LLM Phrase Sanitizer

Summary

  • [A browser extension or VS Code plugin that flags or suggests alternatives for overused LLM-generated phrases like "smoking gun," "delve," "lines up perfectly," and "you're absolutely right" in real-time.]
  • [Core value proposition: Helps users avoid unintentionally adopting AI writing tics and maintaining a more natural, authentic communication style.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Writers, developers, and professionals who frequently use LLMs and want to maintain their own voice.
Core Feature Real-time text analysis and in-line suggestions for overused LLM phrases.
Tech Stack Browser Extension (JavaScript) or VS Code Extension (TypeScript), with a lightweight local ML model or API calls for classification.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium model with a premium tier for advanced style suggestions and custom phrase dictionaries.

Notes

  • [Directly addresses HN user lloydatkinson's complaint about "cringe phrases" and the general sentiment that LLMs overuse specific terminology.]
  • [Has practical utility for anyone concerned about their professional writing being perceived as AI-generated.]

Keystroke Obfuscation Configurator

Summary

  • [A simple, cross-platform GUI tool that allows users to easily configure the ObscureKeystrokeTiming SSH setting, explaining the security trade-offs in plain language.]
  • [Core value proposition: Demystifies the SSH timing obfuscation feature, enabling users to make an informed decision based on their threat model and network conditions.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience SSH users who are frustrated by the performance overhead or want to understand the security implications.
Core Feature A GUI that toggles the SSH client configuration and provides clear, context-aware warnings/benefits.
Tech Stack Electron (for cross-platform desktop) or a simple web app that reads/writes to ~/.ssh/config.
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • [Addresses the user eieio's specific frustration with the performance cost of the SSH chaff packets, which was the central topic of the discussion.]
  • [Provides a practical, user-friendly solution to a technical configuration that is often misunderstood or unknown to the average user.]

SSH Packet Inspector

Summary

  • [A network debugging tool that visualizes the "chaff" packets introduced by SSH's keystroke obfuscation in real-time, helping developers understand and debug their application's network usage.]
  • [Core value proposition: Makes invisible network traffic visible, allowing developers to quantify the overhead of security features and optimize their applications.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience SREs, network engineers, and developers building latency-sensitive applications over SSH.
Core Feature Live packet capture and visualization, specifically tagging SSH chaff vs. real keystroke data.
Tech Stack Go or Rust for the packet capture engine, with a web-based frontend (React/Vue) for the visualization.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Paid tool for professional debugging and network analysis.

Notes

  • [Solves the core mystery from the article, giving users a tool to investigate similar performance issues without needing to "fork go's crypto library."]
  • [Appeals to the HN audience's love for deep technical debugging tools and network analysis.]

Context-Aware LLM Prompt Optimizer

Summary

  • [A CLI tool or IDE plugin that analyzes a user's conversation with an LLM and suggests prompt engineering techniques to get more nuanced, less clichéd responses.]
  • [Core value proposition: Helps users "teach" the LLM to avoid overused phrases by structuring prompts more effectively, rather than just reacting to the output.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Power users of LLMs who are frustrated by the repetitive, "corporate" tone of AI-generated text.
Core Feature Prompt analysis and suggestion engine that offers alternative phrasing or structural changes to elicit better responses.
Tech Stack Python or JavaScript, leveraging an existing LLM API for the analysis.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Subscription for advanced prompt analysis and custom persona templates.

Notes

  • [Addresses the root cause mentioned by users like jcynix: "It's what they read on The Internets when training." This tool helps users provide better training data via prompts.]
  • [Practical utility for anyone trying to get more creative or less formulaic output from LLMs.]

Anticipatory Keystroke Jitterer

Summary

  • [A network layer utility for SSH that, instead of sending extra "chaff" packets, applies a carefully calculated, non-blocking random latency jitter to keystroke packets, reducing bandwidth overhead while maintaining timing obfuscation.]
  • [Core value proposition: Offers a more bandwidth-efficient alternative to the default SSH keystroke timing obfuscation, ideal for low-bandwidth or high-latency connections.]

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Users on low-bandwidth connections (e.g., satellite, rural broadband) or those running SSH over expensive metered links.
Core Feature A proxy or wrapper for SSH that intercepts and modifies the timing of keystroke packets before they are sent.
Tech Stack C or Rust for low-level network manipulation, with a simple configuration file.
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby (open-source) or a niche enterprise tool for specific industries (e.g., maritime, aviation).

Notes

  • [Proposes a direct alternative to the solution discussed in the article, addressing the performance concerns raised by HN commenters about bandwidth overhead.]
  • [A challenging but fascinating project for network protocol enthusiasts, as seen in the comments discussing TCP_CORK and other optimizations.]

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