Page d'accueil de figues de Sig Distribution d'articles Usenet de figues de Sig Figues de Sig par l'email Figues de Sig la plupart des poteaux populaires
Figures significatives
Vous aider, en s'aidant avec blogging, passer en revue, et des bouts de technologie

Paquet vers le haut de vos mots de passe avec Passpack

26 avril 2007 · par David Bradley

Logo de PasspackLa tige carrée d'entraînement Tara de passpack.com a présenté récemment ses observations sur le notre mots de passe pour des scientifiques poteau. Pour appeler votre attention sur un roman approchez à stocker vos mots de passe.

Maintenant, nous avons tous étés par les douleurs du stockage et la recherche des mots de passe pour tous ces millions des emplacements de réseau sociaux, de notre divers MySpace et du YouTube rend compte, tout de Digg aux besoins de HotDiggedy une combinaison unique d'username et de mot de passe.

Avec nos mots de passe pour des scientifiques poteau, nous t'avons donné une idée sur la façon dont créer les mots de passe forts, que mme. Kelly avec bonté a augmentés dessus en offrant la suggestion que plutôt qu'employez une formule chimique simple que vous ajoutez un couple des mots, de sorte que, par exemple votre passphrase pourrait devenir des dents ou quelque chose des putréfactions C6H12O6 légèrement plus cachée la signification dont seulement vous vous rendriez compte.

Malheureusement, ceci part toujours grand ouvert du problème de la façon garder des étiquettes sur tous ces mots de passe, fort comme elles pourraient être et se rappeler quel username est associé auquel. Il y a un bon nombre d'en ligne et les directeurs en différé de mot de passe disponibles et presque chacun que je sais comme une clef de stockage d'USB ils mot de passe se protègent dans ce qu'ils pourraient stocker une liste principale de leurs mots de passe.

Mais, ce que si vous oubliez votre clef d'USB quand vous voyagent, ou ne peuvent pas accéder à un dépôt particulier en raison d'une incompatibilité de navigateur dans votre bibliothèque ou cybercafe ?

Passpack.com semble avoir la réponse. Vous vous inscrivez à l'emplacement pour libre (bien qu'il est seulement dans bêta, ainsi ne se fondent pas sur lui 100% juste pourtant), créez un user-id, un passage d'ouverture, et abilement une clef d'emballage. Seulement votre user-id est envoyé à l'emplacement à l'ouverture, votre mot de passe est modifié de sorte qu'il ne soit pas envoyé de nouveau à Passpack dans un état exposé. Téléchargement de déclenchements d'ouverture puis de votre serviette chiffrée de mot de passe.

Un manuscrit fonctionnant dans la fenêtre de browswer (sans l'information envoyée de nouveau au passpack de cette étape en avant) emploie alors votre clef d'emballage pour déballer la caisse dans votre fenêtre de navigateur. Ceci donne toi et toi seulement (à moins que quelqu'un dévisage au-dessus de votre épaule) accès à votre collection d'usernames et de mots de passe, chaque combinaison liée à l'URL approprié de site Web.

Jusqu'ici, si bon.

Après l'avoir essayé il est très facile établir un couple des périodes, il et utilisation. When you first login you see an array of black squares which are part of a unique anti-phishing mechanism associated with a phrase you get to choose that only you can ever see and that verifies that you are on the passpack system not a spoofed site. “It combines a custom Welcome message, IP recognition and hand-eye training,” Ms Kelly says.

However, I had a seriously nagging feeling that there is something missing from passpack - namely automatic login to your various websites. So, I dropped Tara at Passpack’s head office a line to see what she had to say about this fundamental issue and she came straight back to me, to tell me that this very feature - an auto-login tool - with a Smart Button - that does not rely on plugins is just about to be signed off and released (you can watc a demo here - http://passpack.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/passpack-auto-login-no-plugin-needed/). They’re also adding inline help to the application to make it easier to use. She also told me that, “We have a few small interface improvements almost ready to roll, as well as a few updates that handle some cosmetic issues in Mac Safari.”

The Smart Button is not yet implemented (it has been security validated, but needs some cosmetic fixes), so check back here again soon and I’ll update via the comments on this post so you get to hear as soon as it goes live. As it stands, Passpack just looks like a clever password storage facility with double encryption and a neat line in anti phishing bait. Once the Smart Button is enabled, however, it will steam ahead of the pack.

If you start using Passpack and then change your mind about it, you can always take your data with you. “We support complete export of your data,” Tara told me, “as well as encrypted back up copies.” The developers obviously want users to stay with them because they like the site not simply because of inertia or being locked in.

You can sign up for passpack.com here. Before you ask, no they aren’t paying me to promote the product (10% commission for a free product is $0, after all). It just seems to be a unique approach to a perennial problem that could help you.

6 responses so far ↓

  • Marco Barulli // Apr 26, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    Hi,
    you might also be interested in trying Clipperz.

    Clipperz is an online password manager with some uncommon features:
    - automatic (direct) login to websites
    - offline version
    - …

    To configure automated logins you just need to launch a bookmarklet from the page containing the login form.

    And you are not limited to storing passwords, but any valuable textual information.

    http://beta.clipperz.com

    Please feel free to compare the security level of Clipperz with Passapack’s. (AES 256 instead of 128, SHA2-256 instead of SHA-1 or MD5, a proper PRNG, …). We are also particularly proud of the authentication process based on Stanford SRP protocol. And you need just one password (not two as in Passpack).

    It’s free and completely anonymous.

    The source code is freely available from Clipperz site for security review and the core crypto functions has been released under a BSD license.

    Thanks,
    Marco
    Clipperz co-founder

  • David Bradley // Apr 26, 2007 at 6:47 pm

    Hi Marco

    Thanks for alerting us to this password manager. Is it also browser and OS independent?

  • Marco Barulli // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:44 pm

    Clipperz runs smoothly with every OS and on Firefox, IE and Opera. Safari support coming very soon.

    Thanks,
    Marco

  • Francesco (PassPack) // Apr 27, 2007 at 1:18 am

    @David
    Thanks for this article. It’s nicely done.

    @Marco
    Let me reply to your comments on security, and if I oversimplify, please understand that I’m trying to make this post intelligible for non-crypto readers as well. So bear with me.

    -1-
    AES 128bit is suggested by US Federal Government for Secret documents. AES 256bit takes that further, but it is utterly useless for our scope. PassPack’s AES implementation supports 192bit and 256bit keys but we prefer to use 128bit. Why? Simple. In order to actually obtain a pure 256bit derived key, the user has to write a pass phrase of more then 50 characters. Have you ever met a user that does this? It’s pure theory.

    Just to make the point. I played with the password strength tester that you recently implemented. It reaches it’s maximum strength reading at 128bit (not 256). Don’t worry, it’s not an oversight on your part, it’s just reasonable: there’s no need for more. [wink]

    -2-
    I agree that SHA-1, if used directly, is not so secure because the Chinese have found a way to reverse it. That’s why we don’t use SHA-1 directly, rather we combine it with xxTEA to create a hash. Here’s the formula:

    SHA1Hash(xxTEAencrypt(text, key)).substring(0, 32)

    That’s not reversible.

    -3-
    Tom Wu’s SRP technology is great, and so is PRNG, and generation of entropy is exciting, but honestly - it’s overkill.

    In general, it’s important to remember that PassPack (and Clipperz) need to run in the browser. And browsers speak Javascript. And Javascript is slow. Every choice needs to be carefully weighed to find the right balance between security and speed. That doesn’t mean we choose speed over security - it means we choose balance.

    Here’s an example. My PassPack account contains overs 200 entries, each with a User ID, Password, link, some tags and even notes. Yet, my 3 year old laptop can encrypt my entire pack and save it in 16 seconds (4 of which are added as “downtime” by PassPack itself to avoid stressing the browser). Clipperz employees 6 seconds to encrypt a single card. That’s a substantial difference.

    -4-
    One quick note on PassPack’s Packing Key - it’s what enables us to implement our anti-phishing welcome message. That’s just not possible with a single user/pass combination.

    Security isn’t only about what algorithms you choose.

    Ciao,
    Francesco Sullo
    PassPack Software Architect

  • PassPack's April 2007 Buzz Round up « PassPack - The Blog // May 1, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    […] Pack Up Your Passwords with Passpack | Significant Figures […]

  • PassPack Your Passwords: Get Them Anywhere, Securely and Freely // Aug 13, 2007 at 5:45 am

    […] as the next day — since I stay up past midnight often enough this just makes it easier) I discovered a service called PassPack. The basic premise is this: Create an account, store all your passwords […]

Leave a Comment

Comments are checked for spam before appearing, no need to post it twice.

Related Posts