Brain-based management is getting too exhausting, and isn’t even fully possible with a larger quantity of online accounts.
Bitwarden
To further this, if you actually move over to any password manager please regenerate all of your duplicate passwords with something 20+ characters. It’s almost pointless to have a PW Manager if you’re using the same weak password everywhere.
Make a new strong password for your master password too; I’d recommend a phrase of four moderately long words like “BattleshipMonitorPaintingPrinter” and perhaps a little postit note doodle drawing to remember it until it’s hammered home.
Alternatively, writing down the master password somewhere secure, like in a safe, would also be good if you have to pass on important accounts to descendants.
Or a USB with a Gpg encrypted text file locked with a slightly easier password.
That’s my reason for wanting to switch to a password manager. Everything gets some long random string that would be insane to type anyway. Or using passkeys, if supported, though I’ll have to research how that works.
My biggest problem is backups. I like the method of Aegis authenticator. It just stores some number of past (encrypted) databases. Each change is a new file. This way rsync takes care of both backups and version control. If I accidentally rsync a corrupted file, it doesn’t matter much. And I can verify them with Rhash, just like all files that don’t change (like photos).
I’m fairly sure you can self host Bitwarden, so it might be possible to have backups in a similar way
I think Vaultwarden is the self-hosted version
Bitwarden
pass: the standard unix password manager for tech-savvy people. It’s dead simple: just a directory of GPG-encrypted files that you can sync across devices using git or other means. It has a CLI interface, an Android app, and a Firefox extension.
with that you need to type the unlock password for every single read and search, right?
No, you can configure the timeout in
gpg-agent.conf. I’ve set mine to a few hours.
keepassxc
Keepassxc/keepassdx, synced with syncthings/basicsync.
Using a headscale/tailscale setup so things stay synced even when i am not home.
keepassxc
Vaultwarden - self hosted bitwarden server that any bitwarden clients can connect to.
Keepass2
Have this as my backup just in case bitwarden goes somewhere. I tried to run it as my daily but, it just doesn’t feel nice for some reason.
BitWarden and a self hosted VaultWarden
Fun part of that sollution is that you only need one app.
You also need a secondary service on your server if you want to keep them in sync.
Not really. Bitwarden is hosted by Bitwarden, why would you want to run the sync yourself? Vaultwarden is self hosted anyway.
I assumed that’s what you meant by saying bitwarden and Vaultwarden.
With gnupg, git, and a hardware security token. Also known as “pass”.
I ask AI to make me a random password for “x” service. Whenever I need to remember it, I just ask again \s
Vaultwarden
I ask AI to make me a random password for “x” service. Whenever I need to remember it, I just ask again
I’ve already seen someone do that, a certain family member. At first I found it funny when they asked an LLM about their WiFi password, which was some gibberish. But it worked. There’s no way something like that would be default across entire product line.
Indeed, when I asked, I got “I gave it screenshots of everything because I didn’t know what to type where”.
I use KeePass database for all my passwords and other database for recovery passwords (like from 2FA codes etc). I have it synced in my Nextcloud and ProtonDrive (In case my Nextcloud would fuck up).
Mostly i get by by not telling others how or where I keep my passwords
Do you add 1 and then ! or ! And then 1 to secure your passwords?
A few years ago I set up KeepassXC using Syncthing temporarily to sync the database across all my devices. I fully expected to have to move to Nextcloud for database file management.
The KeepassXC / Syncthing combination has worked so well that I have no reason to change it. The databases are seamlessly synced across all devices (including my phone) without requiring any attention from me. Database issues due to multiple device use are almost nonexistent.
One note: For me Syncthing works much better with multiple devices using a star topology. When I initially set up a mesh configuration I had regular file sync issues. With a star topology they are very rare.
What do you use on a phone?
Syncthing-fork from Fdroid.
There were some repository ownership questions a few months back that were ironed out. In addition, Fdroid vets apps far better than Google ever has so I’m comfortable with the app’s security.
In addition, Fdroid vets apps far better than Google ever has so I’m comfortable with the app’s security.
I agree but they aren’t checking every version for malicious changes. they would likely only get to know if a user checks it and notices it, and the developer could just make the change for a single release version.
of course that applies to any app but this handover/takeover was very sketchy.
Oh, sorry, I meant the password manager. There’s multiple KDBX compatible apps.
KeePass2Android. Recommended by KeypassXC.
KeePass database in cloud storage, synced to my phone.
