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Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

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Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#31

Post by highwaylights »

cornel_io wrote: post #16
missosoup wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is shamir's secret sharing algorithm. Give a chunk of your password to N friends who you trust, with instructions to recombine it.

That has failure modes, though, especially death on one of the N (might seem unlikely but I just had to help a friend unfuck a family member's finances after he died in a car accident next to the one trusted associate who had all his logins saved in an account locked behind 2FA secured by his iPhone which he didn't leave the unlock code to with anyone). I know there are other schemes where you only need M of N to tur…

“Oh my, Smith Partners LLC, what big teeth you have”

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#32

Post by selcuka »

cornel_io wrote: post #16
missosoup wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is shamir's secret sharing algorithm. Give a chunk of your password to N friends who you trust, with instructions to recombine it.

That has failure modes, though, especially death on one of the N (might seem unlikely but I just had to help a friend unfuck a family member's finances after he died in a car accident next to the one trusted associate who had all his logins saved in an account locked behind 2FA secured by his iPhone which he didn't leave the unlock code to with anyone). I know there are other schemes where you only need M of N to tur…

> I know there are other schemes where you only need M of N to turn the key

That's what OP suggests (Shamir's Secret Sharing).

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#34

Post by herrvogel- »

philliphaydon wrote: post #33

BitWarden has an emergency access feature. https://bitwarden.com/help/emergency-access/ Essentially you grant another BitWarden user as an emergency access user. They can request access, and you have 7 days to decline access. After 7 days it grants them access to your vault.

BitWarden has also Organizations

https://bitwarden.com/help/about-organizations/

Which are perfect for sharing access to logins like utilities or insurance.

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#35

Post by RalfWausE »

To add another layer: It could also youself who might need such an 'cheat sheet': My dad suffers from an previously undiagnosed heart problem which escalated pretty badly last year, with a multi month long stay in hospital, coma etc.. He is now back and well, but time in a coma can do bad fuckery to your brain, in part to ones memory... He simply lost some significant parts and now he is pretty good occupied untangling the 'insane security fuckup' (his words) he had constructed around his passwords, bank accounts and investment schemes...

So... keep it simple and be NOT the 'Family patriarch silver back' who is the only one who has full knowledge ;-)

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#36

Post by sneak »

aunlead wrote: post #28

I'm banking on the emergency access feature [1] of Bitwarden (available in self-hosted version too [2]). The "how it works" section has more information [3] but it essentially boils down to trusted individuals requesting access - which can be manually approved by account holder or they are automatically granted access after a pre-defined wait time. Bitwarden (paid version) also claims this - "If your premium features…

This means that the time delay could be theoretically bypassed by someone other than you (as time delay access is not a cryptographic construction), which means that someone else has access today (likely Bitwarden the company), which means the end-to-end encryption has been circumvented to enable this feature, which means they could be issued a search warrant to yield all of your passwords to law enforcement immediately, prior to your being convicted of a crime.

Self host with Vaultwarden and do not use this feature.

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#37

Post by nickstinemates »

m463 wrote: post #8
BooneJS wrote: post #6

I’ve got one of these in 1Password that is shared with my wife. It’s a great idea. When my mom passed away 18 years ago, we looked high and low for every paper and file to help my dad start to become competent with the household finances. It was a big challenge at an already challenging time.

One weird problem I learned of is that you shouldn't store your will in your safety deposit box, because it will be tied up in legal wrangling when it is needed the most.

Also safety deposit boxes tend to disappear as a service all too frequently, without adequate warning. Make sure if you do get one to visit it often.

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#38

Post by sowbug »

missosoup wrote: post #7
jimmcslim wrote: post #5

The big problem with this that I don't have a good answer to... we've been told to use a password manager and have it secured with a long passphrase... and now we write down the username/passphrase on a piece of paper or somewhere else easily accessible - how to adequately secure that? Maybe encrypt the passphrase under an m of n scheme and distribute to family & friends that you can trust to not collaborate unless y…

The answer is shamir's secret sharing algorithm. Give a chunk of your password to N friends who you trust, with instructions to recombine it.

This repo contains a tool for generating physical Shamir shares relatively easily and with reasonable opsec: https://github.com/sowbug/b39tools

It is geared for a BIP-39 seed phrase, but those also make excellent master passphrases for almost any other application.

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#39

Post by DavideNL »

sneak wrote: post #36
aunlead wrote: post #28

I'm banking on the emergency access feature [1] of Bitwarden (available in self-hosted version too [2]). The "how it works" section has more information [3] but it essentially boils down to trusted individuals requesting access - which can be manually approved by account holder or they are automatically granted access after a pre-defined wait time. Bitwarden (paid version) also claims this - "If your premium features…

This means that the time delay could be theoretically bypassed by someone other than you (as time delay access is not a cryptographic construction), which means that someone else has access today (likely Bitwarden the company), which means the end-to-end encryption has been circumvented to enable this feature, which means they could be issued a search warrant to yield all of your passwords to law enforcement immediat…

How did you come to this conclusion?

I would assume that only the "trusted individual(s)" - a spouse or whatever - has the "private key" of the vault, so only that person can access it (not Bitwarden, and nothing can be circumvented.)

Re: Cheat sheet for if I'm gone

#40

Post by wodenokoto »

sneak wrote: post #36
aunlead wrote: post #28

I'm banking on the emergency access feature [1] of Bitwarden (available in self-hosted version too [2]). The "how it works" section has more information [3] but it essentially boils down to trusted individuals requesting access - which can be manually approved by account holder or they are automatically granted access after a pre-defined wait time. Bitwarden (paid version) also claims this - "If your premium features…

This means that the time delay could be theoretically bypassed by someone other than you (as time delay access is not a cryptographic construction), which means that someone else has access today (likely Bitwarden the company), which means the end-to-end encryption has been circumvented to enable this feature, which means they could be issued a search warrant to yield all of your passwords to law enforcement immediat…

This is the paradox. You want trusted parties to have access, only when you are unable to access it yourself, in cases such as your death, or Alzheimer.

But you _don't_ want trusted parties to be able to access this in case you are incapable due to being arrested, or choosing to simply elope.

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