Managing access credentials

Key Moments

Getting Started

First, you must create at least one group. Otherwise, all the entries will end up in an unsorted mess in the tree structure below the Root folder, which quickly leads to confusion if there are multiple entries. The Groups | New Group menu item takes you to a dialog that lets you create a group. Give the group a meaningful name. The group name then appears as a folder in the tree structure in the left-hand pane below the Root folder.

Next, you need to enter access credentials for the individual accounts to the newly created group. To do so, click on the key with the down arrow (or plus icon, depending on your version) in the buttonbar. In the dialog that opens, enter the account's authentication data (Figure 7). Enter a title that is as meaningful as possible as this title will later appear in the upper-right pane. Also enter a username and password, as well as the account's URL. If desired, you can specify whether the access credentials have an expiration date. A free text field at the bottom lets you enter important notes.

Figure 7: The entry dialog also allows free text input and various options.

Once the settings are complete, accept the entry by pressing the OK button at the bottom right. If you want to specify more advanced options for the selected account, clicking on Advanced in the vertical toolbar on the left opens a dialog where you can add further information, including attachments that you want KeePassXC to store in the database.

Clicking Entry in the vertical toolbar takes you back to the original dialog. After saving the entry, it now appears in the upper right pane, which lists all entries for the selected group.

If you define several groups, each of them will be a subgroup of the last group entered in the left pane. If you want to move a group to a different hierarchical level, click on it and drag it to another position in the tree structure; if desired, you can drag an entry one or more levels upwards.

Within the individual groups, you can enter the corresponding entries in the same dialog. For subsequent changes to entries, first click on the entry to be edited in the upper-right pane to select it. The pencil Entry icon in the toolbar then reopens the Edit entry dialog. You can also remove the selected entry from the list by pressing the delete icon.

Semiautomatic

In addition to the ability to save access credentials in the database and query them when required, KeePassXC also automatically enters the data in the web browser on the corresponding web page if desired. This removes the need for tedious typing, but it requires a few preparations beforehand.

First, you must enable the Auto-Type function for the selected entry. To do this, click on Auto-Type in the vertical toolbar on the left when the entry is open. In the Settings dialog that opens, check the Enable Auto-Type for this entry option. Then click on the wrench (or gear) symbol top right to switch to the application's configuration menu. To link your web browser to KeePassXC, select Browser Integration in the vertical toolbar. In the dialog that opens, select the web browsers available on the system in the box under the Enable integration for these browsers label by checking the boxes to the left of the browser names (Figure 8).

Figure 8: KeePassXC supports browser integration in a somewhat awkward way.

Note that KeePassXC only supports the browsers listed in the selection box. For Firefox, Chromium, and some of their derivatives, you need to download add-ons in the next step and integrate them into the browser. You can do this conveniently using the links available in the configuration dialog. Add-ons are used to connect web browsers and password management. They must therefore be installed before you can use the Auto-Type function mentioned above. The respective add-ons appear in the browser toolbar as small status icons (Figure 9).

Figure 9: The add-on reports its operational readiness with a status icon.

Then restart KeePassXC and go to one of the addresses in your web browser that you have set up for auto-type. A small green key symbol will now appear on the chosen website in the fields for entering the access data. Simultaneously, another window will pop up and request the authentication data from KeePassXC for access (Figure 10). Click on Allow Selection ; this will autofill the credentials from the KeePassXC database into the fields without requiring any further input from you.

Figure 10: A single mouse click lets you allow autofill for access credentials.

To use auto-type, the chosen website must request the username and password together. If a website opens a new page or a window to prompt you for a password after the username has been entered, KeePassXC does autofill the authentication data.

In addition, KeePassXC must already be running to autofill access data. You can do this in the automatic startup routine at system start time by checking the Start only a single instance of KeePassXC option in the General menu's configuration dialog. Also, if you check the box to the left of Minimize window after unlocking the database window , KeePassXC will be hidden away in the panel when minimized.

Pasaffe

Pasaffe [10] is a small password manager published under GPLv3. Originally developed for Ubuntu, Pasaffe is now also included in various derivatives such as Trisquel and Linux Mint, as well as in Arch-based distributions such as Manjaro. Besides a PPA for Ubuntu, the source code is also available.

Developed for the Gnome desktop, Pasaffe can also be used with other desktop environments without any problems. The straightforward program opens a small window after installation, where you can enter a master password for the new database. Then it creates the database and opens the very simple main window (Figure 11).