this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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It is truly upsetting to see how few people use password managers. I have witnessed people who always use the same password (and even tell me what it is), people who try to login to accounts but constantly can't remember which credentials they used, people who store all of their passwords on a text file on their desktop, people who use a password manager but store the master password on Discord, entire tech sectors in companies locked to LastPass, and so much more. One person even told me they were upset that websites wouldn't tell you password requirements after you create your account, and so they screenshot the requirements every time so they could remember which characters to add to their reused password.

Use a password manager. Whatever solution you think you can come up with is most likely not secure. Computers store a lot of temporary files in places you might not even know how to check, so don't just stick it in a text file. Use a properly made password manager, such as Bitwarden or KeePassXC. They're not going to steal your passwords. Store your master password in a safe place or use a passphrase that you can remember. Even using your browser's password storage is better than nothing. Don't reuse passwords, use long randomly generated ones.

It's free, it's convenient, it takes a few minutes to set up, and its a massive boost in security. No needing to remember passwords. No needing to come up with new passwords. No manually typing passwords. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but if even one of you decides to use a password manager after this then it's an easy win.

Please, don't wait. If you aren't using a password manager right now, take a few minutes. You'll thank yourself later.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (10 children)

is it possible to sync keepassxc between computers + phone?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

A long time ago, I used Syncthing to do this. Sometimes there would be file conflicts, which was a pain to resolve, so I switched to BitWarden (using their server for syncing) and have been using it ever since.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yes, but it's a bit involved to automate it. KeePassXC has a less technical recommendation here

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

But I wanna tell people my master password to my pw manager. It's such a fantastic password that no one could ever possibly guess I would have. I wanna gloat.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 6 months ago (5 children)

people who use a password manager but store the master password on Discord

??????????

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, true story. Really weird.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

I really want to know what the logic behind their thinking was...or maybe they were just lazy? I don't know, it's so weird that they'd get to the point of using a password manager but then still make such a basic error.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Self-hosted bitwarden. Highly recommend

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

VaultWarden is a damn godsend.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My sell on password managers is quality of life. You never have to reset your passwords and you can use a hotkey to enter it faster than typing. Gone are the days of fat fingers.

But I get where people have an issue. It's one point of failure vs. many, but they don't realize It's easier to well secure the one than it is to not spread the same vulnerability everywhere.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

Been using 1Password for 6+ years and I probably won’t use anything else ever. My wife and I both use it and have a shared family vault for things we both use. I couldn’t live without a password manager.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Personally, I use PassWord123! for everything. It says its a strong and secure password so why wouldn't I use it for everything?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Its the best one to use, all password hacking tools avoid this one when they're attacking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Is there a password manager i can use across ios and windows?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Pretty much any of them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Say, what are the chances either

  1. someone comes to depend on the password manager to get into their accounts, gets locked out of the password manager, and loses access to all their accounts (e.g. using the password manager to create and store passwords they might never have even seen);

or

  1. their password manager (or account) gets hacked, somehow, and all their accounts get taken at once
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

As Kramer said. Levels. If tou layer your security 2 becomes a non issue. What you have, what you know, and who you are. Which plays into 1. The 3-2-1 of backup. 3 copies of the data. 2 different media. At least 1 off site. Suprising as it might be, writing a great backup is to write your password down. I have a piece of paper with my password in a lock box in my apartment, in a safety deposit box at my bank, and at my parent's house

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

These are real issues however they are pretty easy to mitigate, and I would say that the upsides of a password manager far outweigh the downsides.

  1. Make sure that you are regularly typing your master password for the first bit. After that you'll never forget it. You can also help them out by saving a copy of their master password for them at least until they are sure they have memorized it. There are also password managers where you can recovery your account as long as you have the keys cached on at least one device.

  2. This is far, far outweighed by the risk of password reuse. This is because when a single one of the sites you use gets hacked then people will take that credential list and try it on every other site. So with a password manager there is just one target, without it is one of hundreds of sites where you reused your password. Many password managers also have end-to-end encryption so without your password the sync service can't be hacked (as it doesn't have access to your passwords).

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)
  1. Ultimitaly its up to the user to remember the master password. I'm not familiar with how bitwarden works, but do use keepssXC. I hear bitwarden is better for less techical people due to having built in account/sync options. (You can also self-host BW if you want)

Keepass is file based, it is up to you to backup the file, for most users putting it an auto-synced cloud drive folder is their best bet. It's automatic, multi-platform and offsite. Many technical users use sync thing (or equivalent) to manage the file across multiple backup locations.

KeePassXC is essentially a GUI for KeePass datbase, like word and openoffice can both open a .doc file, multiple programs can open a keepass file. If KeePassXC dies, theres others options for opening the file.

That being said, IOS options suck, theres one called Strongbox that is, in my opinion, the best. Its not FOSS like the others. Free version works 100% no problems, but they ask a high $20/yr sub or $90 lifetime for a handful of nonessential features (I'd love an decent alternative if anyone has one).

For Android I like KeepassDX and Keepass2Android.


  1. Getting hacked is a legitimate concern. However the greatest risk is still duplicate passwords. The time it will take crack an individual database is going to be less well spent than dumping a million username/password sets into a thousand sites and hoping for a match.

Realistically, if you're the specific target of a hacker going specificaly after your database files you're best off freezing your credit and bank accounts.

If your database gets hacked, there are a few ways you can midigate the damge, its up to an individual to balance convince and security.

First is 2fa. Keepass works great for TOTP 2fa, with browser integrations, its a breeze signing into sites. If you want more security, you would have a seperate database file with a different master password for 2fa. Now a hacker needs to crack 2 databases.

Another way to midigate the risk is to seperate whatever emails you use from the main bunch, this way if the main databse gets compromised, you won't lose the emails that let you reset everything else. If the email gets cracked, they won't have a convient list of accounts to go mess with. Also make sure the emails have all the security and recovery options available setup.


3, bonus round Finally for fincial security, don't have your credit card saved on every site. I don't let most of them store it all and use privacy.com for pretty much every thing these days. Set transaction limits on regularly used sites, and set up a "1-time use" card for anythibg irregular.

Even if some brakes into, for example my amazon account, they are going to find a $100 purchase won't work. I'll get an email and can just cancel the privacy card for amazon (I'd probably kill them all to be safe) and then work on resecuring everything.

To top it off Privacy.com it self has a dedicated credit card attached with a strict limit to midigate damge.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

For privacy.com:

  • great for anyone in the USA
  • don’t worry about difficult subscription cancellations again, just turn that one’s dedicated card off
  • I have personally blown past the daily spend limit of 250$ without issue, idk if that limit is real. The 1000$/mo may be though I've never hit that.
  • I’ve used privacy.com for everything from Amazon to car insurance to gym memberships.

On credit freezes:

  • a freeze means that your consumer report will not be shared, which means applications for credit in your name will be denied
  • all USA consumer reporting agencies (data brokers) are legally required to freeze sharing of your reports for free upon your request
  • you can temporarily unfreeze when you get a new credit card, apply for rental property, etc.
  • don’t let them upsell it or try to direct you to another page with similar language, it is free
  • credit monitoring products need to request your report to see if any new accounts have opened. Don’t monitor it, prevent it by freezing the reports
  • freezes are required for any data broker, not just credit. This includes LexisNexis (job history), and presumably the ones that do rental and vehicle ownership history though i don’t know their names.
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

so is it bad to store my 2FA backup codes as notes in those same login's bitwarden entries?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I do this too. I would need them if I lost my phone, so bitwarden/keepass is a good place for them to be.

I think it is less secure though since someone who somehow has the unencrypted vault without your 2FA device could get in with the codes - but if someone cracks my master password I'm screwed in a whole bunch of ways so I'm not sure it matters too much at that point.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

It depends on your threat model. It does mostly reduce the benefit from 2FA, but you are probably still very safe if you use a random password per site. I mostly use 2FA when forced (other than a few high-value accounts) so I don't worry about it. For most people having a random password which is auto-filled so that you don't type it into the wrong site is more than sufficient to keep themselves secure.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (3 children)

What's wrong with a password manager built in the browser?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Honestly nothing. I recommend this to everyone because it is the easiest way to set up and offers huge advantages.

  1. No more password reuse, per site random passwords.
  2. Auto-fill reduces chance of phishing attacks work because you get suspicious if the password doesn't auto-fill.
  3. Most browsers will integrate it into their sync service to reduce the risk of you losing your passwords.

I think these are the two biggest benefits and every browser password manager will accomplish both.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's what I've resorted to, but I only use Firefox because it has a master password.

Chrome has no master password so what stops any fool from stealing your passwords while you're taking a piss, I don't know.

Password managers always cause me headaches, though, and never want to integrate correctly. More trouble than their worth in my estimation.

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