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"Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

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Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you get the added benefit of being able to store 2FA settings Don't do this. If you use a password manager with all the benefits this entails (long, random passwords, each only used for a single site), the only benefit 2FA really gives you is if your password manager is compromised somehow. If your second factor is in your password manager, you're screwed. I use Authy with a long, secure password printed on a piece…

> Don't do this. On the other hand, do do this, but be aware of the tradeoffs. I hate telling people not to do something. Most people just end up not turning 2FA on at all. My approach has converted many people from "one password reused everywhere, at best with variations" to KeepassXC unique passwords everywhere + 2FA and I classify that as a big win. The biggest benefit of TOTP 2FA isn't the "second factor" part, i…

I grant that it protects against phishing, but I would cautiously suggest that sites that are smart enough to enable 2FA are smart enough to salt/hash/bcrypt/whatever best practice their passwords, so leaks are neutered. It doesn't not protect, so to speak, but the protection is likely to be redundant.

But it emphatically does not protect against keylogging, anyone who can install a keylogger on your computer can grab your password DB and your master password. This is exactly the scenario where you need actual 2FA.

Anyway, broader point: yes, it's a tradeoff, but the kind of people who needs explaining why a password manager is a good idea, do not understand enough to make an informed decision about these tradeoffs. And so, the responsible advice is to not use it.

I do know enough to understand these tradeoffs, and my conclusion is to keep password management and 2FA strictly seperate.

Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#102

[Pasting an old comment of mine on password managers, since I see people talking about starting to use Keepass. I hope this helps someone] ---- If you're just starting, here's some guidance on setting up a password manager. First of all: Don't be afraid of using one. It's not just more secure, it's super convenient. Never again will you ask yourself: Did I make an account for this website/service? What email did I us…

iOS has https://github.com/MiniKeePass/MiniKeePass, available on the app store.

Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#104

[Pasting an old comment of mine on password managers, since I see people talking about starting to use Keepass. I hope this helps someone] ---- If you're just starting, here's some guidance on setting up a password manager. First of all: Don't be afraid of using one. It's not just more secure, it's super convenient. Never again will you ask yourself: Did I make an account for this website/service? What email did I us…

I would also recommend KeepassXC. I personally store the password file in Dropbox allowing it to be used on all of my devices. I use a second KeePass file with a different password for storing 2FA backup codes. I open that so rarely that I have to sometimes test that I still can!

On iOS I would recommend the free MiniKeePass app. It isn't as easy to use as some KeePass app(s) I used on Android years ago, but it gets the job done.

I have a old article[0] on how to use KeePass effectively which makes the workflow more seamless. Ugh - really old, I really should update that!

[0]: http://iamqasimk.com/2013/10/01/using-keepass-effectively/

Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#105

[Pasting an old comment of mine on password managers, since I see people talking about starting to use Keepass. I hope this helps someone] ---- If you're just starting, here's some guidance on setting up a password manager. First of all: Don't be afraid of using one. It's not just more secure, it's super convenient. Never again will you ask yourself: Did I make an account for this website/service? What email did I us…

I've just switched from 1password to keepassxc in the past few weeks. The only reason I did so was because 1password was trying to force me into their subscription service as I switched from macOS to linux mint. I looked at a few work-arounds on github, but eventually just decided to move over to keepassXC. The export / import and overall setup was pretty painless. I am still able to sync through dropbox just like wi…

Just out of curiosity, aren’t you worried that keepasstouch app on the iOS may be compromised?

Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#106

do not skip the section on "Cloudflare, Privacy and k-Anonymity" ... it is a great summary of an elegant privacy solution. And check out Cloudflare's detail post too: https://blog.cloudflare.com/validating-leaked-passwords-with...

Does anyone else not get results when searching for 'asdf' and 'hunter2', and 'lauragpe'(which appears in the article) not return results using the shell script provided?

edit: Ok, so my `openssl sha1` (version 1.0.x) outputs '(stdin) ', whereas the script expects just . add ' | cut -f2 -d" "' after the 'openssl sha1' call to fix this if you have the same problem.

Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#108

do not skip the section on "Cloudflare, Privacy and k-Anonymity" ... it is a great summary of an elegant privacy solution. And check out Cloudflare's detail post too: https://blog.cloudflare.com/validating-leaked-passwords-with...

Why does 0000 have the largest number of hashes? Does SHA-1 not distribute hash values evenly?

Maybe crypto people who have brute-forced up some typeable passwords that hash to low numbers on the first SHA-1 pass, for a fun-and-games equivalent to a Proof of Work? (It'd only show up in actual DB dumps for backends that use "SHA-1 with no salting" for password hashing, which might also serve as a useful canary value.)

Re: "Pwned Passwords" V2 With Half a Billion Passwords

#110

On the topic of passwords, have a look at my command-line passphrase generation program. GitHub: https://github.com/ctsrc/pgen It's written in Rust. Install the Rust toolchain installer from https://rustup.rs/ curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh And remember to add ~/.cargo/bin to your PATH. Then install my command-line utility cargo install pgen Usage is described in detail in the README on GitHub. Additionally you…

I usually use apg for this purpose, installed with on ubuntu:

    sudo apt install apg
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