Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 61 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

#31

Post by twopoint718 »

I have a mix of methods. For sites that I rarely visit or are of no real consequence if the password were compromised I use a memorable one for them all.

For sites that I care about the security I generate a random password with something like this:

    dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=12 | uuencode -
then store that in psafe (http://www.hep.wisc.edu/~dan/psafe/) with a master password that I remember. This way if some site's password does get compromised, it doesn't translate to any other site. I suppose I could also carry around the encrypted psafe file with me on a USB key, but I've found that I don't really need to log into these sorts of sites when I'm out.

Re: Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

#32

Post by DenisM »

Shameless plug follows:

Our product Memengo Wallet http://www.memengo.com is a password manager that can be used in three different ways:

  1. Store your passwords on the iPhone app (Windows mobile phone also supported). Encrypted with AES-256.
  2. Store your passwords on the web site (AJAX). Encrypted with AES-256 within 
     the web browser - plaintext never leaves your computer.
  3. The iPhone and the web site can be synchronized. There is a sync button in the iPhone app.
I can answer any questions. We also answer all support questions submitted from the web site (with a return address).

FAQ:

1. Q: The web site makes me uneasy. What if you decide to change your program to fish out the encryption key form the client? A: The web site does not add to the problem - any password mamanger app on the iPhone can phone home without your knowledge.

Re: Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

#33

Post by DenisM »

drenei wrote: post #12
jmah wrote: post #3

I use 1Password (for OS X and iPhone), which lets me generate random passwords for different sites. It can't auto-fill on the iPhone, so you have to go into the app and write it down somewhere (or remember it) temporarily. It's got syncing and stuff too. http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password

I have a question - is there a password manager out there thats made it possible to access passwords from a computer that isn't yours? I'm guessing not, because of the obvious security issues. Because I'm not always in front of my laptop, or desktop and don't have an iphone I use a system similar to what is here - different passwords for different sites, with a system that helps me remember them.

My product does exactly that - client-side AES-256 encryption in AJAX app. Works on any (modern) computer! More details: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459887

Re: Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

#36

Post by jseifer »

I use 1Password from Agile Web Solutions. It's great -- it imported all of my passwords from Firefox and I just save new ones that way. It also does work on the iPhone as a password filler if you use the bookmark. If you use Dropbox you can keep your password keychain in there and update it among all of your macs. It would be ideal if Windows and Opera were supported but maybe some day. For now I just go between Safari and Firefox.

Re: Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

#37

Post by hachiya »

For over a year I've been using a GPG-based "password wallet" through a shell script based on this Linux Journal article. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9861

I just run wallet.sh -e and enter the wallet password, and then vim (or editor of your choice) opens up with your passwords. It can be handy to store other important data in this GPG protected file as well. When you exit vim, the file is re-encrypted automatically.

I keep automatic backups of the gpg encrypted wallet file for safety.

The nice thing about this approach is that you can view and edit the file in whatever way you are comfortable, e.g. with vim. No GUI needed, so you can access it over SSH quickly (and yes, you could use the GUI solutions with SSH forwarding, but nothing beats a text editor in terms of speed).

Also, for generating passwords, you can use a Vim keymapping to shell out and run something like apg or spassgen to generate a random password.

I typically store website account info like this:

hotmail.com:hachiyamail@hotmail.com:password

or for more verbose account information:

americanairlines.com

hachiyamail@hotmail.com

Password: flyamericanairlines

Mother's Maiden Name: Smith

PIN: 2342

Re: Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?

#39

Post by [deleted] »

hachiya wrote: post #37

For over a year I've been using a GPG-based "password wallet" through a shell script based on this Linux Journal article. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9861 I just run wallet.sh -e and enter the wallet password, and then vim (or editor of your choice) opens up with your passwords. It can be handy to store other important data in this GPG protected file as well. When you exit vim, the file is re-encrypted automa…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN