2012-01-16 08:51:08 +00:00
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</head>
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<body>
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2012-02-04 23:36:19 +00:00
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<header>
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<h1>Master Password</h1>
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<h2>by <a href="http://www.lyndir.com">Lyndir</a></h2>
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<h3>© 2011</h3>
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</header>
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2012-01-19 16:40:39 +00:00
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<h2 id="1">— 1 —</h2>
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<p>
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<b>Find the site</b> that you need a password for by entering its name into the <i>search field</i>.
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</p>
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<p>
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<b>While searching</b>, the names of previously used sites will be listed.<br />
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Tap one of these results to go straight to its password.
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2012-01-16 08:51:08 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-01-19 16:40:39 +00:00
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<h2 id="2">— 2 —</h2>
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<p>
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<b>The site</b>'s password is now displayed.<br />
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Tap it to <i>copy the password</i>. Once copied, you can switch to another application and paste it into a password field.
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</p>
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2012-02-05 21:18:38 +00:00
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<p class="Class MPElementStoredEntity">
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<b>To change</b> the password for this site, tap the <i>edit icon</i> <img src="icon_edit.png" />.
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</p>
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<p>
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<b>Below the password</b> you can set the <i>password type</i>. Some types <i>create a password for you</i>,
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others let you <i>choose your own</i>.
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</p>
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2012-05-20 17:17:22 +00:00
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2012-02-05 21:18:38 +00:00
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<p class="Class MPElementGeneratedEntity">
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<b>If the site complains</b> when you try to set or update the password, try changing the password type.
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</p>
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<p class="Class MPElementGeneratedEntity">
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<b>To create a new</b> password for this site, you can increment the <i>password counter</i> <img src="icon_plus.png" />.
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This is useful, for example, after you've had to share the password with somebody else.
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2012-01-16 08:51:08 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-05-20 17:17:22 +00:00
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2012-01-29 11:41:48 +00:00
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<h2 id="faq">— F.A.Q. —</h2>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#what" >What is it and how do I use it?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#why" >Why do I need Master Password?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#custom" >A password was given to me.</a></li>
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<li><a href="#loss" >What if I loose my device?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#device" >Am I dependant on my device?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#paranoid" >How do I maximize my security?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#hacked" >A website I use got hacked!</a></li>
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<li><a href="#forgot" >I forgot my master password!</a></li>
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<li><a href="#algorithm">How does Master Password work?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#branded" >Do you offer enterprise solutions?</a></li>
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</ol>
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<h3 id="what">What is Master Password and how do I use it?</h3>
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<p>
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Master Password <b>creates secure and unique passwords for you</b>, so you don't have to.<br />
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The human brain is not well suited for creating secure and random passwords, and it's also terrible at remembering lots of unique passwords.
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Master Password does the work for you: all you need to do is remember a single long and secure master password to log into the app.
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</p>
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<p>
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<b>Begin by entering the name</b> of the thing you want a password for. Naming is entirely up to you, but remember to be consistent.<br />
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<i>Good names</i> could be:<br />
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<code>apple.com</code>, <code>john@doe.com</code>, <code>office safe</code>, <code>bike lock</code>, etc.
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</p>
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<p>
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Every name has a different password, so the following names may be <i>difficult to recall</i>:<br />
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<code>pw for amazon</code>, <code>pin for my cell</code>, etc.
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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</p>
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<p>
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<b>Tap the resulting password</b> to copy it for pasting in a different application or read it to type it in or use it manually elsewhere.
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</p>
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<p id="why">
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The thought behind this application is to secure your online (and offline) life by <b>changing all of your passwords</b>
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to passwords generated by this app.
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</p>
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<h3>That's crazy talk.<br />
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Why would I do that?</h3>
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<p>
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The theory of password authentication is simple: To log in to a site, you share a secret word with the site
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that <b>only you and the site know</b>. Since nobody else knows your secret password, nobody else can log
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into your account.
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</p>
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<p>
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It sounds good in theory. In practice, it's an <b>absolute hell</b>. These days, people have hundreds of
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accounts on sites all over the Internet. Does that mean we're all remembering hundreds of secret passwords?
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No, of course not. That would be impossible. If you're like most people, you remember one or two
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passwords, and use those for all your sites everywhere.
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</p>
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<p>
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<q>So, what?</q>, you might say.<br />
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Here's the problem: When you share a secret password with a site, and then share the same secret password
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with another site, both sites can now use the password you gave them to log into your account on the
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<i>other</i> site. Nothing is stopping them from trying to log into <i>your</i> GMail, Hotmail or Twitter
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accounts using the same password that you used to register an account on their site. Even if you only give
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2012-03-06 14:49:33 +00:00
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your password to sites you trust, all it takes is for one of those sites to get hacked and lose their
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passwords database. Those hackers now have all it takes to impersonate you.
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</p>
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<p>
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Some of you already try to remember unique-ish passwords for different sites. This causes problems too:
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with so many passwords to remember, you easily forget passwords for sites you haven't used in a while. Or
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you make up a simplification algorithm such as tacking your birth year onto the site name. This is really
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not any more secure than using the same password for every site. And then there's those sites with
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<q>password policies</q>: suddenly your long password isn't good enough, because it begins with a number,
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or because (god forbid) it's <q>too long</q>. You now find yourself forced to create a strange variant
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of your password that you'll have forgotten before the day is out.
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</p>
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<p>
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This app <b>solves the problem</b> by letting you remember only a single password without requiring you to
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share the password with anyone else. Instead, the app creates secure passwords for use with whatever site
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or purpose you might need a password for.
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="custom">I can't change all my passwords.<br />
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Some of them were assigned to me.</h3>
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<p>
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That's why this application allows you to change the password type to <code>Personal</code> or <code>Device
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Private</code>. These types let you enter a password for a site, and the app will encrypt and save it so
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you it's there for future reference.
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</p>
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<p>
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These types of <q>stored</q> passwords don't have all the advantages that their generated counterparts have
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(they can be lost if you lose your device and don't back it up), but when you can't change a site's
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password to one generated by the app, this is as good as it gets.
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="loss">So, what if I lose my device?<br />
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I'm locked out of everything?</h3>
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<p>
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<b>Absolutely not!</b> In fact, generated passwords aren't even stored on your device. No, not in the
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cloud either. They're not stored anywhere! What that basically means is, if you grab the iPhone of a
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colleague or friend and open this app on it, re-create your user and log in, <i>it'll give you all your
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generated passwords</i>. So, if you lose your iPhone or forget it, just open the app on your iPad,
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or borrow a friend's device, and you're back in business. No backups or restores needed.
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</p>
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<p>
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This also means that, unlike all those apps that store your passwords or send them off to be stored on the
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Internet, this app makes your passwords much safer from theft. If your device is stolen, the thieves can't
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get at your passwords. There's also no cloud service that can be mis-managed or hacked.
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</p>
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<h3 id="device">Great, but that still means I need my device to get my passwords.</h3>
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<p>
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Correct. However, remember that usually you'll only need to use this app once for each site. After you log
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into a site once using the password generated by this app, your browser will probably ask you to remember
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the password for the future. Agree to that, and you won't need to bring up your device again the next time
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you log in to the account.
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</p>
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<p>
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There is also a <b>Mac version</b> of Master Password that will be released on the Mac App Store.
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It allows you to generate any of your passwords without the need to bring out your device.
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="paranoid">I'm paranoid.<br />
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How do I maximize my security?</h3>
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<p>
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The <b>most important</b> aspect to the security of your passwords is your <b>master password</b>. Make sure
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you've chosen a <em>long and unique master password</em>. Master Password's algorithm makes it exceedingly
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difficult for an attacker to try and guess your master password, but that doesn't make you invulnerable when
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your master password is short or easy to guess. Ideally, your master password should be <em>longer than 10 characters</em>.
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<b>An absurd sentence is a great idea</b>, especially if you add non-english or gibberish words to it.
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Absurd sentences are long and high in entropy, but also particularly easy for the human brain to remember.
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</p>
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<p>
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Armed with a good master password, your next step is to assign generated passwords to all of your sites.
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By default, Master Password creates passwords that are secure and still easy to copy from your device to a
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computer by keyboard. If you prefer, you can go into Master Password's preferences (using the top-right icon)
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and change the default password type to <code>Maximum Security</code>. Any new sites will now generate
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passwords that are even higher in entropy. These types of passwords are nigh impossible for an attacker to
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brute-force (though a <code>Long Password</code> really is secure enough for most any purpose, see
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<a href="#hacked">What if a site I use gets hacked?</a>).
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</p>
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<p>
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Also check out the application's preferences (using the action icon on the top right, select <code>Preferences</code>).
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Make sure that <code>Save Password</code> is disabled. Saving your password is a convenience feature that lets your
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device save your master password so you don't need to enter it anymore. It also means that if somebody finds your device
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somewhere or steals it, the only obstacle between them and your passwords are your device's PIN code (assuming you even
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have one set).<br />
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If you go into <code>Settings</code> from the <code>Preferences</code> page, you'll see some global application settings.
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Make sure that <code>Stay logged in</code> is disabled here. If enabled, Master Password will not log you out when you
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close the app. Your master password isn't saved on your device, but kept in memory for as long as your device remains
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powered on. Again, a malignent person can easily get to your passwords if they find your device powered on and logged
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into Master Password.
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="hacked">What if a site I use gets hacked?</h3>
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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<p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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There have been some high-profile password database leaks lately. LinkedIn, eHarmony, Last.fm, to name a few,
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have lost millions of people's password hashes. In these cases, attackers have obtained a <q>hash</q> of
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the passwords of all of these people, which makes it much easier for them to guess their real password.
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A single sophisticated computer can be used to try about 200 million password combinations per second in an
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attempt to find the real password behind a hash. That means these millions of people should be really worried
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about their account's security.<br />
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However, if your account is protected by a <code>Long Password</code> generated by Master Password, it would
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take an attacker with ten sophisticated machines multiple lifetimes to find your actual password from a hash.
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If the attacker knew beforehand that you had used Master Password to generate your password, he could make
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his approach smarter and ten sophisticated machines would still take more than a year of constantly trying
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millions of password combinations to find out your actual password.<br />
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If instead you used a <code>Maximum Security</code> password to protect your account, the time it would take
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for an attacker to brute-force your password goes completely off the scale: 10,000 sophisticated machines
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would take up to 312409704477000000 years to try and find your password, even if the attacker knew you're
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using Master Password.
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2012-05-27 20:31:22 +00:00
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</p>
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<p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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If you're worried anyway or you need a new password for your site for some other reason, tap the password
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counter button (the plus icon) to instantly create a new password for that site.
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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</p>
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<p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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Long story short: When a website you use gets hacked and your password hashes are revealed to hackers, this
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is a big problem for the security of your account, but only if you're <b>not</b> using Master Password.
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="forgot">I forgot my master password. What are my options?</h3>
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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<p>
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Due to the nature of this app's algorithms and the decisions that were made to protect against brute-force
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attacks, it is simply infeasible to recover your master password. If you really can't remember it, your
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passwords are <b>gone</b>.
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</p>
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<p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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Where you go from here is: on the unlock screen, tap and hold your user. A dialog will pop-up that will allow
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you to reset your master password. Assign a new master password, log in, and for each of your accounts, go
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through the password recovery procedure (which will usually involve the site sending a mail to your email account)
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2012-05-20 17:17:22 +00:00
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and reset the passwords of these accounts to passwords generated by your newly chosen master password.<br />
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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Now don't forget it again! :-)
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="algorithm">So how does this thing work internally?</h3>
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2012-01-30 00:02:45 +00:00
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<p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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The way Master Password works internally is <a href="http://masterpassword.lyndir.com/algorithm.html">fully disclosed</a>.
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The source code for this application is also available from <a href="https://github.com/Lyndir/MasterPassword">GitHub</a>.
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I invite anyone with a technical background to go through these resources to make certain of the trustworthiness of Master Password.
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2012-01-29 11:41:48 +00:00
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</p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<h3 id="branded">This stuff is gold.<br />
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2012-01-29 11:41:48 +00:00
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I want one branded for our company.</h3>
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<p>
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2012-06-15 09:16:02 +00:00
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<a href="mailto:masterpassword@lyndir.com">Contact me</a> directly for enterprise inquiries.
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I can provide branded clients and enterprise distribution if your company is interested in deploying this solution internally.
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</p>
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<p>
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Master Password can also be used as a One-Time Password token generator to secure your infrastructure and client access.
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2012-01-29 11:41:48 +00:00
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</p>
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<footer>
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<a href="http://masterpassword.lyndir.com">Homepage</a> | <a href="http://www.lyndir.com">Lyndir</a> |
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<a href="http://www.lyndir.com/contact">Contact</a>
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</footer>
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2012-01-16 08:51:08 +00:00
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</body>
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</html>
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