dannyman.toldme.com

Password Management

To a discussion as to preferred password manager solutions, I added the following:

I developed a simple algorithm I use to generate passwords using my brain. I have changed this algorithm a little a few times. At the most basic level, something like this would be you like to use the password “frog” . . . but then add the first two letters of the web site name: Yahoo -> frogya, Google -> froggo.

The benefits of this “password manager” are that as long as your brain functions appropriately, you will always have platform-independent access to your passwords. If any given password is compromised it is non-obvious to an attacker what your other passwords are.

The main drawback to this password manager is that different password policies are mutually exclusive: one site requires a special character, another site prohibits special characters.

I use a different algorithm for more complex passwords for important stuff like ssh keys and unix logins.