Password Management

[TwinVega]

Too many passwords, too many characters, which leads me to:
I'm looking for a way to manage my passwords outside of my head.
First, is this a good idea?
Second, what kind of means could one use? (I was looking into getting a constantly changing keychain thingy with an LCD...and when I say keychain thingy I only say that because I was looking all over for one similar and couldn't find it)

Let me know if you have anymore insight into this, I'm interested in ideas/why this shouldn't be done.

[dementeddemon]

you can do like i do, get yourself a basic encryption tool, so you can put a password on a file, doing this you can only open the file with the password, then open youself up a notepad file and put all your passwords for everything in there, along with user names and any other information you might need to login into whatever. Then put a password on the notepad file with you encryption tool. Then you only have to remember one password and you can just copy and paste the rest of them. Works well for me and i dont spend hours trying to remember a password i came up with 3 years ago and havent used for 6 months.

[TwinVega]

The thought crossed my mind, but I wanted something that would change the key constantly. This isn't a bad solution though. Gimme some more

[Voltage Spike]

Look into SKEY for a very old technology intended for constantly changing keys. RSA SecurID Authentication offers some very strong authentication tools, but the "password" doesn't change. However, a changing password doesn't automatically mean things are more secure...

[dataworm]

Too many passwords, too many characters, which leads me to:
I'm looking for a way to manage my passwords outside of my head.
First, is this a good idea?
Second, what kind of means could one use? (I was looking into getting a constantly changing keychain thingy with an LCD...and when I say keychain thingy I only say that because I was looking all over for one similar and couldn't find it)

Let me know if you have anymore insight into this, I'm interested in ideas/why this shouldn't be done.

Firefox have a fairly good password storage fonctionality(You can turn encryption on).
Personally I use the keychain from Mac OS X and manage the rest in my head... Mac OS X is the first os that include sutch fonctionality in it's core fonctionality...

Issue with keeping this on a encrypted document is that, you risk that someone will be able to look at it, if your not in private... and you risk leaving trace of the password on the disk if you look at the file with a editor that does't block the memory swaping...

Actually Mac OS X had a bug where the master password could be cached on the swap :| I hope they fixed it by now... Every os should encrypt their swap files!

There is a multitude of software to address this kind of stuff...

Most of the solution you`ll find are designed for big compagny but I beleive some smaller system should exist...

Normally the buzzword you want to search for is "Single Sign-on".

Won't say more as I work for a compagny doing that type of solution

[astcell]

Memorize something like the Star Spangled Banner, the Defcon Goons' names, It's a Small World, etc. Break the phrases down into small bits and use those as your password. When you have to change passwords, just grab the next phrase.

Example:
Password 1: Ohsaycanyou

When you have to change it:
Password 2: seebythedawns

Catch on?

[dementeddemon]

Memorize something like the Star Spangled Banner, the Defcon Goons' names, It's a Small World, etc. Break the phrases down into small bits and use those as your password. When you have to change passwords, just grab the next phrase.

Example:
Password 1: Ohsaycanyou

When you have to change it:
Password 2: seebythedawns

Catch on?

hmmmmmmm..............I never thought of something like that, that is a dadmn good idea, i think i might use somethine like that sometime in the future. Thanks for posting that suggestion astcell.

[Voltage Spike]

hmmmmmmm..............I never thought of something like that, that is a dadmn good idea, i think i might use somethine like that sometime in the future. Thanks for posting that suggestion astcell.

You may wish to read the semi-famous paper on passphrases versus passwords[1]. Not exactly definitive, but the article is well-written, and it may just inspire you to change a few things.

[1]Don't get scared away by the page length. The article is short, but there are a lot of responses.

[ck3k]

Twinvega, you could just tell me...that would work

you could store them in a jpg ala Steganography

[ndex]

Too many passwords, too many characters, which leads me to:
I'm looking for a way to manage my passwords outside of my head.
First, is this a good idea?
Second, what kind of means could one use? (I was looking into getting a constantly changing keychain thingy with an LCD...and when I say keychain thingy I only say that because I was looking all over for one similar and couldn't find it)

Let me know if you have anymore insight into this, I'm interested in ideas/why this shouldn't be done.

RSA SecurID for a package solution, if you want to develop something of your own, check out ibuttons; that is some fun technology

[dementeddemon]

You may wish to read the semi-famous paper on passphrases versus passwords[1]. Not exactly definitive, but the article is well-written, and it may just inspire you to change a few things.

[1]Don't get scared away by the page length. The article is short, but there are a lot of responses.

that was a most excellent article. Thank you for sharing it with me, and everyone else, i do think that the only thing i am changing becuase of this particular thread at this time would be my passwords to pass phrases of 14-128 characters.

[KeLviN]

time for a palm pilot.
it keeps all your passwords off your computer, does some minor encryption just for shitz-n-giggles, and a good password management program comes with most new ones.

[d3ad1ysp0rk]

time for a palm pilot.
it keeps all your passwords off your computer, does some minor encryption just for shitz-n-giggles, and a good password management program comes with most new ones.

Yup, just don't lose it.

[dementeddemon]

I have had bad luck with palm pilots, and pda's, i always seem to loose them somewhere or they turn up missing, so i gave up on them over half a year ago.

[gzzah]

time for a palm pilot.
it keeps all your passwords off your computer, does some minor encryption just for shitz-n-giggles, and a good password management program comes with most new ones.

c:\Palm\[userdir]\memopad\memopad.pdb

Unless you use one of the many programs specifically written for storing and encrypting your password lists. :)