Although I have a couple of issues with password storing and some of the claims made by this app I think this is great and worth getting. Why, I don’t hear you cry. Well I would if I was in the same room as you but we’re not. Hell we’re not even in the same time. You are in my past, but lets avoid getting into that.
If you use a number of passwords then remembering them all is not easy, sure you know your current login password but what about your old ones. Or passwords for different systems, or backups and so on. I have a list of about 12 passwords sloshing about in my head.
Get Keepass, use your current login password as the master password and store your the rest of your old passwords in it. Use keepass as a backup, not as your memory. That’s caveat one, this isn’t a replacement to knowing your passwords but will help in an emergency.
In a cross OS love in Keepass is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. The best feature is this can work off USB/iPod so it can be a part of your portable apps suite.
KeePass is a free/open-source password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk. So you only have to remember one single master password or insert the key-disk to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). For more information, see the features page.
Caveat two is that last sentence, AES and Twofish are neither the best or the most secure encryption algorithms currently known. They are good enough and generally accepted but that isn’t the same thing.
2 responses so far ↓
1 David Teare // Jun 30, 2006 at 8:11 PM
I agree that KeePass is pretty cool, but it doesn’t go far enough IMO.
I much prefer a Password Manager that integrates directly with the browser, like RoboForm for Windows or 1Passwd for Mac OS X. I spend most my day browsing the net and I couldn’t live without these tools.
Both these tools go beyond KeyPass’ features in the following ways:
1. Ability to handle multiple forms per web page. Imagine having multiple GMail accounts. RoboForm and 1Passwd provide a dropdown list within the browser so you can choose which one to use.
2. AutoFill web forms with predefined identities. One click can fill an entire form! Both apps go beyond Sarfari’s autofill.
3. Generate strong passwords and automatically fill the current page with the new password **without** using the clipboard. This defeats Keyloggers. In the case of 1Passwd, it will generate the maximum strength password for the active website.
4. 1Passwd and RoboForm save you from accidently entering your login information into a Phishers site.
One thing I do love about KeePass, however, is that it has an open source implementation of the encryption algorithm. Sadly RoboForm uses its own proprietary solution. 1Passwd, otoh, uses the standard OS X keychain so you can rest assured that a whole team of Apple engineers have made it robust and secure.
See the 1Passwd Mac OS X Password Manager and Roboform Form Filler homepages for more details.
2 Jackdaw // Jun 30, 2006 at 8:37 PM
Thanks, I’ll check those two websites out. It’s not a solution for cross OS use or for a portable flash/disk. If you have one box though that you have full rights to then this could be for you.
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