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If you forgot your password manager master password? Short of brain damage, I don't think that would ever happen. It would be a hassle for my family if I died

If you forgot your password manager master password? Short of brain damage, I don't think that would ever happen. It would be a hassle for my family if I died, though. I'm young, but I should still get that scenario worked out.

b112 5y ago
With a death certificate, you don't need passwords, or even account numbers, to access savings, accounts at fiscal types of businesses. It helps pf course, to have account info, but just knowing the place of business is typically enough. For clarity, living people lose account numbers and access all the time. The death cert. gives you this same power.
- philjohn 5y ago
  Not for, eg, lastpass. Your master password is the key that decrypts your password vault. Some sort of escrow would be good, that unlocks a document with access instructions upon receipt of a valid death certificate.
  - CamelRocketFish 5y ago
    Yes but lastpass contains your password to something like your bank account. You don’t need your password for your bank account if you have a death certificate is what the poster is saying.
    - hanniabu 5y ago
      It can contain passwords to much more and other information
      - hunter2_ 5y ago
        Can you offer some examples, besides financial accounts, of things that a person would prevent others from accessing while alive and grant access upon death? In sifting through the list of things in my password manager, none of them (besides finances) seem to have this quality. Seems like anything that should be seen by family after death could be seen by them before death as well.
        dylan604 5y ago
        Social Media accounts with private DMs are the first to pop in mind. Cloud storage like Dropbox/iCloud/Drive/etc. Lots of things really if you thing on it for just a minute or so
        hunter2_ 5y ago
        If someone DM'd me, they were probably expecting me to not share what they said. If I have stuff in cloud storage that could be useful to others, I'll share it now. I'm sure there are use cases, but it's actually very hard for me to think of them, let alone in just a minute or so.
  - hedora 5y ago
    You can reset your lastpass password if you have access to any machine that was recently logged into it.
inglor_cz 5y ago
When I am on a longer vacation and I do not use a certain password, I struggle remembering it. If I were chucked into a prison and let out after several years with no computer use in between, I would likely forget all my passwords in the meantime. No brain damage needed, just disuse.
nanomonkey 5y ago
> Short of brain damage, I don't think that would ever happen. Funny you say that. A year ago I went outside to break up a domestic violence situation. I woke up later face down with a brick next to my head. Due to the concussion I forgot my phone's password and that of my ATM card. It took me six months to remember them, although by then I had replaced both. Shit happens.
42365767567 5y ago
I actually forgot my master password last year - luckily I had my partner's 1Password set as a recovery. About 3 weeks later I remembered it
KronisLV 5y ago
> Short of brain damage, I don't think that would ever happen. I once forgot my phone's unlock pattern. The very same that i had used for years, daily. I'm not someone that normally has memory problems, but i guess a few synapses just refused to do their job for some reason. I actually had an ex tell it to me, otherwise the phone would be bricked (i tried recalling it for basically 2-3 days). Now i have it and the master password for my password database written down and given to a person that i trust. Kind of a silly and a worrying situation, so it helps to have contingencies for even cases like that. One might worry about Alzheimer's and whatnot after a situation like that, but even healthy "HDDs" occasionally get "bad sectors". Of course, there have also been cases where i forget something that was almost a subconscious memory (e.g. muscle memory) just to remember it a while later. For context: am in the 20-30 age bracket, no other memory problems or a history of memory problems in my family tree.
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 5y ago
I forgot mine twice, after having used it for years. And no brain damage yet (at least I think so). Fortunately, in both cases it came back after a few days. Problem with piece of paper - in case of brain damage, I will forget where that piece of paper is hidden ...

b112 5y ago

With a death certificate, you don't need passwords, or even account numbers, to access savings, accounts at fiscal types of businesses. It helps pf course, to have account info, but just knowing the place of business is typically enough. For clarity, living people lose account numbers and access all the time. The death cert. gives you this same power.

philjohn 5y ago
Not for, eg, lastpass. Your master password is the key that decrypts your password vault. Some sort of escrow would be good, that unlocks a document with access instructions upon receipt of a valid death certificate.
- CamelRocketFish 5y ago
  Yes but lastpass contains your password to something like your bank account. You don’t need your password for your bank account if you have a death certificate is what the poster is saying.
  - hanniabu 5y ago
    It can contain passwords to much more and other information
    - hunter2_ 5y ago
      Can you offer some examples, besides financial accounts, of things that a person would prevent others from accessing while alive and grant access upon death? In sifting through the list of things in my password manager, none of them (besides finances) seem to have this quality. Seems like anything that should be seen by family after death could be seen by them before death as well.
      - dylan604 5y ago
        Social Media accounts with private DMs are the first to pop in mind. Cloud storage like Dropbox/iCloud/Drive/etc. Lots of things really if you thing on it for just a minute or so
        hunter2_ 5y ago
        If someone DM'd me, they were probably expecting me to not share what they said. If I have stuff in cloud storage that could be useful to others, I'll share it now. I'm sure there are use cases, but it's actually very hard for me to think of them, let alone in just a minute or so.
- hedora 5y ago
  You can reset your lastpass password if you have access to any machine that was recently logged into it.

inglor_cz 5y ago

When I am on a longer vacation and I do not use a certain password, I struggle remembering it. If I were chucked into a prison and let out after several years with no computer use in between, I would likely forget all my passwords in the meantime. No brain damage needed, just disuse.

nanomonkey 5y ago

> Short of brain damage, I don't think that would ever happen. Funny you say that. A year ago I went outside to break up a domestic violence situation. I woke up later face down with a brick next to my head. Due to the concussion I forgot my phone's password and that of my ATM card. It took me six months to remember them, although by then I had replaced both. Shit happens.

42365767567 5y ago

I actually forgot my master password last year - luckily I had my partner's 1Password set as a recovery. About 3 weeks later I remembered it

KronisLV 5y ago

> Short of brain damage, I don't think that would ever happen. I once forgot my phone's unlock pattern. The very same that i had used for years, daily. I'm not someone that normally has memory problems, but i guess a few synapses just refused to do their job for some reason. I actually had an ex tell it to me, otherwise the phone would be bricked (i tried recalling it for basically 2-3 days). Now i have it and the master password for my password database written down and given to a person that i trust. Kind of a silly and a worrying situation, so it helps to have contingencies for even cases like that. One might worry about Alzheimer's and whatnot after a situation like that, but even healthy "HDDs" occasionally get "bad sectors". Of course, there have also been cases where i forget something that was almost a subconscious memory (e.g. muscle memory) just to remember it a while later. For context: am in the 20-30 age bracket, no other memory problems or a history of memory problems in my family tree.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 5y ago

I forgot mine twice, after having used it for years. And no brain damage yet (at least I think so). Fortunately, in both cases it came back after a few days. Problem with piece of paper - in case of brain damage, I will forget where that piece of paper is hidden ...