Lead Image © Marcel Goldbach, photocase.com
Managing access credentials
Key Moments
Whether you need to log into an online store, read your email in the browser, check your account balance, or upload photos to the cloud, most services require an individual account with authentication when accessing the service. This raises various problems.
Using the same passwords on multiple accounts has long been considered a bad idea. However, if you use a separate password for each service, you can quickly lose track of which password goes with which account. At the same time, passwords need to meet certain security requirements to resist brute force attacks. It is important to use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters in a way that prevents algorithms from cracking the password, leading to complex passwords. Last, but not least, users soon forget their passwords for accounts that they rarely use, which makes access even more difficult.
To remedy this, a password manager can store essential information for the respective services along with your access credentials. You then typically only need to remember the password for the password manager. Of course, developers need to effectively secure the password manager itself. Otherwise, unauthorized third parties will gain access to a large volume of individual access credentials in the event of theft. To see what current password managers have to offer, this article looks at four password managers: Buttercup, KeePassXC, Pasaffe, and Password Safe (see also the "Not Considered" box).
Not Considered
Because there are so many password managers, we had to make a subjective selection for this article. Many local password managers are no longer under development and have therefore dropped out of the race. For example, Gryptonite [1] (formerly GPassword Manager) was last updated in 2015, MyPasswords
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy ADMIN Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Related content
-
Synchronize passwords in KeePass
Usernames and passwords play an important role in security. In this article, we show you how to set up the KeePass password manager and keep it synchronized across multiple devices. -
Requirements for centralized password management
Time and again, situations arise in which admins need access to a system they do not otherwise manage. But, do you want to hand over responsibility for password management to a centralized software? What capabilities must that software have? -
Centralized Password Management
Time and again, situations arise in which admins need access to a system they do not otherwise manage. But, do you want to hand over responsibility for password management to a centralized software? What capabilities must that software have?
-
Hardening SSH authentication to the max
Public key authentication further supplemented with one-time password or hardware authentication methods improves SSH security while offering genuine convenience. -
FreeRADIUS for WiFi Hotspots
Tired of contending with shared passwords for wireless networks? Use WPA Enterprise and a FreeRADIUS server to set up a user password solution for wireless users.