I don’t use the password manager in Firefox, what a terrible idea.
Use an independent password manager, something purpose-built.
And using Linux? Hahaha, right, right. Call me when there’s a serious OneNote, or even more importantly, Excel competitor. (Or even a standard shell on Linux, or the same set of tools built in).
Use an independent password manager, something purpose-built.
Why? You’re talking as if browser password managers aren’t purpose-built. “I love entering a password to fill my passwords for me instead of entering a password” —statement dreamed up by the utterly deranged. (I think we all should just use auto-locking.)
OneNote
Web-based stuff like Notion and Google Keep
Excel
LibreOffice Calc with Tabbed UI
standard shell
what is that
Call me when there’s a serious OneNote…
OneNote works on the web, but there’s also Notenook if someone is looking for similar features with an app for offline access + End-to-end encryption and open source alternative. I’ve got it syncing to my Android, Windows, Linux and Mac clients without issue.
…or even more importantly, Excel competitor.
There’s OnlyOffice which has a spreadsheet. Yeah it’s not Excel which has existed for a million years, but it should work for the vast majority of users’ basic needs. It may not work for your specific use case, but it is a viable alternative that exists today. If you want more online collaborative features (like the o365 version has) you can use CryptPad, which provides an end-to-end encrypted and open-source collaboration suite, including the web version of OnlyOffice Spreadsheets.
Or even a standard shell on Linux…
What does this even mean? Nearly every major Linux distro sets bash as the default shell, and if not the default, is probably already installed and called if needed. Not sure I understand the problem here.
…or the same set of tools built in
Stick to a single OS and you get the same set of tools built in? This is a strange statement to be making against a system that not only thrives on diversity but has lots of niche systems that require a myriad of default tools.
I do completely agree about not using any browser’s built-in password manager.
Firefox Sync was purposefully built too, they didn’t wake up one day to find it on the porch in a basket.
It syncs passwords, works on desktop and mobile and can do some other cool stuff — syncs tabs and bookmarks, alerts you to password breaches, send tabs from one device to another, lets you export your passwords etc. It’s a good password manager.
I agree that using browser-based password managers is not a good idea, but everything else you said was willfully ignorant.
- OneNote isn’t that special, and you don’t need Windows to use it.
- There are half a dozen excel competitors that are feature complete (OpenOffice, LibreOffice, GSuite, Zoho, Gnumeric…)
- All shells use the same standard tools, excepting a few bulit-ins (because most tools are external to the shell). Some shells have different syntax, but most of them share most syntax. In 90% of cases, the default shell is bash, or an offshoot (dash, etc), which are all descendants of sh, so unless you’re using an extended feature set, scripts are cross-compatible.
A better statement should be: you should remain vigilant and light on attachment to any banner. If an ill wind blows and you don’t like it, it’s time to move. Control your data- aspire to be a digital nomad.
Firefox isn’t without it’s own issues, recently. Google used to be viewed as a paragon once, too.
Once upon a time I think they were largely harmless … but once they started leaning into profit over quality they went rotten in a hurry. Exactly why I’m concerned with mozilla’s path.
I put all my passwords in a text document, then print it on a little strip of paper and shove it up my ass. Whenever I take a crap, I dig it out from the turds and try to memorise some of them again. Then I shove it back up there where noone else can find my data and I won’t lose it.
Forgot to mention I delete the text document and set fire to the computer’s hard drive. The passwords are only ever in my ass, with the rest of my personal shit.
A friend has a notebook next to her computer with all her passwords in it. Initially I was horrified - what if you’re burgled? - but actually it’s genius. Much more secure than letting a browser remember them, and she doesn’t even need to memorise a Bitwarden password.
I just make all of my passwords password123 then I don’t have to worry about memorizing them
Just add the same memorized bit to the end. Something simple like “123” would work. Even if the book is stolen it won’t do them any good.
This concept is also known as Double Blind Passwords or Horcruxing.
It’s a primitive password manager, primitive because unencrypted and not integrated into your devices, but far better than not having a password manager.
Assuming the laptop is running bitlocker (often on by default), has a user password, and is offline, that’s pretty decent.
My mom told me that she was made fun of for having a book of hand written account credentials related to running her business (6 people total). I told her it was the best way to do it that wasn’t massively overcomplicated for her situation and to keep it up. The only recommendation I made is that she use different long passwords for every site since she’s already not memorizing them.
Personally I’m not convinced this isn’t the best way unless you’re being targeted by physical bad actors
Where is this book? In the office? I’d say that’s absolutely horrible. If it’s at home I think that’s more okay.
Or maybe behind a keyed lock in the office? Not a keypad, a physical key.
“Here’s what you need to know” - Avoid anything Google.
No-one should be using any password manager built into any browser, neither Chromium-based nor Firefox-based. Browser password databases are almost trivially easy for malware to harvest.
Go with something external, BitWarden or 1Password, or if you are entirely within the Apple ecosystem their new password system built into iOS 18 is apparently really good.
Go with something external, BitWarden or 1Password,
When it comes to security software, I usually recommend sticking to open-source solutions, which is why I’d recommend Bitwarden over 1Password. Their whole stack (backend, frontend, and native apps) is all open-source. A premium account is well worth the $10/year.
You can self-host their server, or self-host Vaultwarden which is an unofficial API-compatible reimplementation of the Bitwarden backend designed to be lighter weight. Note that Vaultwarden is unofficial and hasn’t gone through the same security audits as Bitwarden has. It’s a good piece of software though.
Use ButWarden myself for a login-only subset of my KeePass content. I absolutely recommend it every chance I get, but some people prefer 1Password because reasons. And 1Password is pretty much the best closed-source option out there, which is why I do so… anything to give people options that keep them away from clusterf**ks like LastPass.
Definitely true… Using 1Password is still better than reusing the same password for every site. I’ve never used it but it gets a lot of good feedback, especially from Mac users.
I migrated from Bitwarden to 1password because I wanted something that works better on Linux. With 1password-cli and PAM integration mainly. Bitwarden worked beautifully under Windows, but once I switched over to Linux, I realised that 1password had more Linux friendly features. I track some discussions over bitwarden that talk about implementing those features, I might come back at some point.
What makes the built-in database easier to attack than a separate one?
For performance reasons, early versions weren’t even encrypted, and later versions were encrypted with easily-cracked encryption. Most malware broke the encryption on the password DB using the user’s own hardware resources before it was even uploaded to the mothership. And not everyone has skookum GPUs, so that bit was particularly damning.
Plus, the built-in password managers operated within the context of the browser to do things like auto-fill, which meant only the browser needed to be compromised in order to expose the password DB.
Modern password managers like BitWarden can be configured with truly crazy levels of encryption, such that it would be very difficult for even nation-states to break into a backed-up or offline vault.
It’s protected by the user’s login password. If an attacker can steal that or knows it already, the passwords are all there for them to see.
Bitwarden (on the other hand, for example) has 2FA options to unlock the database.
How does this work if accessing Bitwarden via the browser extension? I don’t like needing to type my master password in all the time as it’s long, so I have the setting turned on that times the vault out periodically, but so it’s also unlockable with a pin rather than requiring the master password every time. I understand the pin is shorter, but does the protection of the vault still stand?
