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Apple passwords deserve an app

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Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#301

Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords among my family? Any time folks bring up password solutions, they are always missing this requirement for me. 1Password is a life-saver in this regards. All my kids have their own vaults but for the little ones I have them use a shared vault between my wife and me so we have access to their passwords. I can also easily share passwords for services like Net…

That’s interesting. I don’t share any passwords with family and have taught my kids to share passwords with no one (written in a sealed envelope as backup). I don’t like shared passwords although if I really had to, I would just enter it once and let iCloud save it to their account. Stinks if I have to change the password, but I almost never change passwords.

I definitely appreciate the 'security forward' approach... but what about end of life planning or general 'dad's in a comma and XYZ needs to happen'?

1Password with a 'parents vault' that my wife and I share has been a life changer for coordinating family access to important accounts AND ensuring solid passwords are being used.

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#302

Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords among my family? Any time folks bring up password solutions, they are always missing this requirement for me. 1Password is a life-saver in this regards. All my kids have their own vaults but for the little ones I have them use a shared vault between my wife and me so we have access to their passwords. I can also easily share passwords for services like Net…

A 1pass team w/ my wife was a huge level-up.

Our company utilizes 1Password, which means all of our employees have family accounts. As you said, it is SUCH a huge game changer for my wife and me. Honestly don't know how / why I didn't pursue such a solution before hand. It was always 'let me send you a one time password' or 'I can export that key'. What a mess.

Shared vault FTW!

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#303
post #286

I recommend https://strongboxsafe.com/ as a better open source alternative Works with touchID on my MacBook, uses KeePass so it's easy to migrate if needed, and the killer feature for me was being able to sync it to iCloud so you can use it across devices. Even better if you enable E2E encryption on your iCloud https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT212520

It's a good piece of software for what it is, but the tool is .kbdx based and like all such solutions tends to handle shared secrets rather poorly. It also handles adding new secrets for new accounts less elegantly than Apple's own built-in password manager which has a nice flow for adding anonymous forwarding email addresses and contact details for new accounts so long as you commit to the cult of iCloud.

Still if you need a multi-platform password manager that performs well on Apple devices there's nothing I can recommend since you can just use .kdbx tools on other platforms and strongbox itself has highly reliable multi-cloud sync, extremely fast input of secrets, a better security model than keychain itself has, and even has MacOS Chrome support (abliet hacky support) if you feel like trusting the plugin. It makes Bitwarden and other Keepass clients feel clunky in comparison.

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that's why I'd never touch passkeys. It feels like you're basically locking yourself into a weird ecosystem that you'll never be able to escape from.

This is kind of silly. If you're using hardware 2FA, you should absolutely have backups. I've used YubiKeys for years and have one in my laptop, one on a keychain, and one in a safety deposit box. Passkeys are just another instance of this . I have added Passkeys to all of my accounts with 2FA and it's somewhat more convenient (significantly more convenient for mobile devices). But every account also has all my YubiK…

This would be less annoying if we could get actual federated identity that big players would actually accept, as it stands having to fetch a key from a safe deposit box every time I register a new account is a huge amount of friction.

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, this is super fucking weird. You'd think this would be connected in some fashion to "keychain", but nope. Other browsers used to be able to use it. I do think it’s a really thorny issue—“allow this application to access all saved passwords?” is a pretty damn scary permission to include. Up there with the “allow this application to control your computer” permission that is used for accessibility apps (which ap…

Obviously the browser doesn't need to have unfettered access. It just needs to tell the password "hey there's a password on wellsfargo.com" and then the password manager asks the user if they want to use the password. And maybe give access to all passwords. IDK, what does safari do?

Safari pops up a little box attached to the login text field asking you if you want to use the password for wellsfargo, so it seems like it’s asking keychain “do you have a password associated with this url?”. At least on modern MacBooks they also figured out a good UX flow, when that box is on screen you put your finger on the Touch ID button and it authenticates you, puts in the password, and goes to the next field or hits submit.

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#307

I wish you could add a second password or different passcode on top of iCloud Keychain / apple passwords. I get nervous at how easy it is to compromise all passwords: 1. Give someone your phone passcode, they can change apple account password. P0wned 2. Have iCloud Keychain on laptop… other user account resets password on account. (Or use it on work computer without realizing) 3.

Turn on screentime and prevent account changes with a 2nd PIN

Might also limit password changes but unsure.

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. The experience on Windows is terrible. They can claim it's cross-platform but it's truly a sub-par product. Like a lot of other Apple stuff, I'm only able to use it because I don't use anything non-Apple for anything "serious" that involves a GUI. Windows is for gaming, Linux is my file storage and docker-service-running server that I only interact with over SSH and Web. Ditto Notes, all their Office-type progra…

Yeah, I'm also a heavy user Spotlight Search and it's still impossible to get to Keychain settings. I suppose my higher level point was that it's damn near impossible to efficiently get to the keychain settings.

Alfred?

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#309

Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords among my family? Any time folks bring up password solutions, they are always missing this requirement for me. 1Password is a life-saver in this regards. All my kids have their own vaults but for the little ones I have them use a shared vault between my wife and me so we have access to their passwords. I can also easily share passwords for services like Net…

> Am I the only person on Earth that needs sharing of passwords among my family

No, and the article specifically discusses that use case and the fact that iCloud keychain doesn't support it.

Re: Apple passwords deserve an app

#310

> And it all syncs across your devices, for free?! Really? My Linux devices? Android? Windows? I don't think so. I recommend considering one of the most important features of a password manager is that it doesn't force you to use a single manufacturer's products forever. Even if you swear undying fealty to Apple (or anyone else) today, you might change your mind in the future. 1Password, Bitwarden, and others allow m…

This is as good as comment as any to hang my off-topic thoughts on...

I use Chrome's built-in password manager. I always set up website security questions with gibberish answers. I wish Chrome would give me a field to store those answers. Or, better yet, treat them like password fields and autofill them.

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