Key Moments

Password Safe

Password Safe [11] is based on the Gnome desktop in terms of appearance and ergonomics, but it can also be used with other desktops. Password Safe is available as a Flatpak and can therefore be installed across different distributions.

The installation routine creates a starter in the desktop menu tree. After the first launch, a visually appealing program window appears in which you first need to create a KeePass-compatible database. To do so, press the New button top left in the titlebar (Figure 13) and assign a name in the now opened file manager.

Figure 13: Password Safe lacks just about all conventional control elements.

In the next dialog, you can define the access procedure for the database. You can choose from three options: a password, a key file, or both.

After opening the new safe, you are taken to an empty window. Here you can create groups to which you assign individual websites' access credentials by category. To do this, click on the hamburger menu in the top right-hand corner and select the New Group option. In an input dialog, type in the group name and optionally add a note in a free text field. You do not have to save the entered data; the software does this automatically.

To add entries to the individual groups (which are tagged with a folder icon), click on the home icon on the left and then select the desired group. The selected group then appears to the right of the home icon in the titlebar. Now click on the hamburger icon in the right-hand corner of the titlebar and select the New Entry option.

This step opens a dialog for the authentication data. For each entry, you can also store important notes in a free text field. Additionally, the Attachments field lets you store files that might be useful as attachments.

Password Safe automatically saves the changes to the entry data again. When the respective group is called up again, the changes appear in tabular form in the program window.

To switch to another group, first click on the home icon located top left in the titlebar and then select the desired group from the table of displayed groups. The program window lists the entries for the group, while the active group appears in the top right corner next to the home icon.

Settings

The Settings dialog (Figure 14), which you open via the hamburger menu, offers a few options for customizing the software.

Figure 14: Password Safe has a very simple configuration dialog.

Under Safe , use a slider to activate the option Save Automatically . In the Security tab, you will also want to set a different interval for Time threshold for locking the safe if your computer frequently runs in unattended mode. This function locks the password safe if you do not perform any actions in the software for a longer period of time. You then have to enter the master password again for further access.

Multiple Safes

In Password Safe, you can use several data safes in parallel. To create a new one, click on the New Safe option in the hamburger menu and configure it. The new safe then appears as a new horizontal tab in the application's main window, which allows a quick change between the individual safes. You can also block these safes by clicking on the padlock symbol at the top of the hamburger menu's Options dialog, thereby blocking the active safe. If you call up the active safe again, the dialog for entering the master password appears.