It is truly upsetting to see how few people use password managers. I have witnessed people who always use the same password (and even tell me what it is), people who try to login to accounts but constantly can’t remember which credentials they used, people who store all of their passwords on a text file on their desktop, people who use a password manager but store the master password on Discord, entire tech sectors in companies locked to LastPass, and so much more. One person even told me they were upset that websites wouldn’t tell you password requirements after you create your account, and so they screenshot the requirements every time so they could remember which characters to add to their reused password.
Use a password manager. Whatever solution you think you can come up with is most likely not secure. Computers store a lot of temporary files in places you might not even know how to check, so don’t just stick it in a text file. Use a properly made password manager, such as Bitwarden or KeePassXC. They’re not going to steal your passwords. Store your master password in a safe place or use a passphrase that you can remember. Even using your browser’s password storage is better than nothing. Don’t reuse passwords, use long randomly generated ones.
It’s free, it’s convenient, it takes a few minutes to set up, and its a massive boost in security. No needing to remember passwords. No needing to come up with new passwords. No manually typing passwords. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but if even one of you decides to use a password manager after this then it’s an easy win.
Please, don’t wait. If you aren’t using a password manager right now, take a few minutes. You’ll thank yourself later.
Quick question - what are your opinions on using Firefox’s inbuilt password manager? I’ve installed Bitwarden as an extension, but I find Firefox to be more convenient.
I mostly use FF on Linux, Windows, and Android and have no issues with using FF cross platforms.
Don’t. It’s not in your hand is the simple reason.
My advice is keepassxc. Got a ff-addon that does basically the same. But you have your password-file under your control. And do backups!
What permissions does the extension need to work? Then, what is the maximum level of damage a malicious update to said extension can do with those permissions?
I don’t know. You wouldn’t really need it, if you’re concerned. If you’re fine you can just C&P or even let keepassxc use it’s auto-type. So no addon needed. It’s just more comfortable. And you can never have security AND comfort. Security is absolutely always uncomfortable.
While it’s so convenient, anyone gaining access to your browser while your laptop is open can gain access to everything. Bitwarden usually add an extra step to unlock it (which you could disable if you want) when you want to use the extension. By the way, it has an extension for Firefox, so just hitting Ctrl + Shift + L it auto-fills the login/password fields of your login page just like firefox would. But with the extra step that gaining access to the browser doesn’t straight away unlock all your passwords for anyone to see.
I use bitwarden over Firefox because it can auto fill into apps. So, my bank apps or whatever else. And I’m not tied to Firefox if, for some reason, I want to stop using it.
It’s similar to why I don’t use Samsung pass on my phone. It’d work better filling in the fields, but that’s not going to help me on my PC, and I don’t want to maintain multiple managers.
And I’m not tied to Firefox if, for some reason, I want to stop using it.
Not gonna happen.
