4 ms·
All three of these expose your entire password database to system memory every time you decrypt a single secret giving you no reasonable defense against malware
by lrvick 6y ago
All three of these expose your entire password database to system memory every time you decrypt a single secret giving you no reasonable defense against malware.
LastPass, 1pass, BitWarden, and most other password managers doubled down on good UX, but the security is pretty terrible. They help users avoid using the same password for every site, granted, but is that really good enough?
Consider that every time you go to login to Twitter you also expose say your AWS root password or any TOTP backups, etc.
Compare to Mooltipass, Trezor Password Manager, or Password Store + Yubikey which all decrypt a single password at a time with a physical touch on an external device.
If an adversary has malware on your system and wants to dump 100 passwords they must get you to physically consent 100 times on an external device.
Presumably you would notice.
Today I only recommend hardware password managers. Pay for the hardware once and there is no monthly fee or any such nonsense, as the client software is all local and open source. Also no company gets the list of services you use and analytics of how often you use them for added privacy.
All three of these alternatives let you backup your encrypted password database to a git repo or cloud storage of your choice.
For technical teams where sharing is needed I tend to setup Password Store which lets us set up per folder sharing permissions and the database is just a shared git repo.
There are multiple cli and gui front ends available for mobile and desktop.
- brittpart_ 6y agoWhat are hardware password managers - like a flash drive? What happens if you lose it or someone steals it?
- wcoenen 6y agoYou mentioned mobile at the end of your comment, and I'm wondering how this works. Isn't it very cumbersome to attach a hardware device to your phone each time you need to login somewhere?
- bartvk 6y agoNot OP but there are keys like the YubiKey 5C Nano. Combined with Qi charging, you could stick them permanently in your phone. Note that I can't comment whether this is wise.
- mcyukon 6y ago"1Password only decrypts what you need at the time you need it. If Molly (one of my dogs) is using 1Password to log in to SquirrelsAreEvil.net, only her SquirrelsAreEvil Login details are decrypted. Her RabbitRecipies Login, along with all her other hundreds of items, remain encrypted." August 2013 https://blog.1password.com/just-in-time-decryption/ https://blog.1password.com/just-in-time-decryption/