This is BrainLog, a blog by Dan Sanderson. Older entries, from October 1999 through September 2010, are preserved for posterity, but are no longer maintained. See the front page and newer entries.

January 8, 2008

1Passwd, a password manager and automatic form manager for Mac OS X. Supports secure password generation, multiple browsers, syncing with .Mac, and more. Consider this a reminder to get your passwords in order for the new year.

I still have the problem of needing to access important sites from multiple terminals, and I don't have a .Mac account, may not be willing to use .Mac with some Macs, or some terminals may not be Macs. But if the alternative is to have horrendously insecure passwords on my bank accounts, I wonder if it's worth just giving up the ability to log in to some sites from lots of different computers. I also wonder if "security questions" and other such nonsense make secure passwords a moot point for thieves.

But 1Passwd can really shine for unimportant sites that require passwords, sites I don't need to use from just anywhere, sites I'll probably never use again after the first time, sites that may be run by small outfits with less than desirable security measures in place to protect my raw password which may or may not reveal how to access my accounts on other sites unimportant to me that might become important someday like Facebook. Using secure, complex, random, unguessable and unique passwords for the unimportant sites and a utility to manage them ensures that the stuff for which I'm not willing to put in the effort of picking a good password won't someday bite me in the ass.