Hello Eric, Rick, and others who are interested in password syncing and
keeping them handy. Here's what I highly recommend.
MiniKeePass from
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minikeepass-secure-password/id451661808?mt=8.
Here's why.
First, download the KeePass program for your PC from
http://keepass.info/ and install it.
I will cover using the iOS version, but first will cover the PC side of
things.
I just go with the version 1.x version and it works very well. When I
open this program in Windows I create a new database. You can call it
whatever you want. Your name is probably a good choice. This file will
have a .kdb extension. This file can be saved in Dropbox so that you
have access to it from MiniKeePass from your iOS device. Keep in mind
that the MiniKeePass app doesn't read the dropbox located file directly,
instead you have to use an app like Dropbox to open the file, and
MiniKeePass will be one of the choices. Or, the other thing you can do
is upload it from the iTunes file sharing when your device is connected.
This isn't exactly automatic syncing, but as long as you know this, and
as long as you remember to update the file after making a change either
from the iDevice or the PC, then you will be good to go.
Although the bulk of my message is on how to use the iOS app, some of it
will cover using the PC version, which BTW, is very accessible with
Window-Eyes on Windows 7. I would imagine it should be similarly
accessible with other screen readers.
First, the PC. When you run the program, and you already have a database
file handy, you are prompted to open it using your password. Please keep
in mind that if you lose the password, you are SOL, because this is all
local, unlike LastPass or 1password, and there is no reset tool. Once
the file is open, you have a general category and various subcategories.
Just so you know, I got rid of all the subcategories and have everything
in general. You can press delete to delete something. When you are at
the general section, tab twice to get to the actual entries. Now you can
use first letter navigation to get to what you cant, or you can arrow to
the one you want. By default it will show the name of the entry, your
user name, and the url. The password, for security reasons is now shown.
I believe that Rick was asking how you do the actual login. Here's where
it uses some manual switching because it's not automagic like LastPass.
To copy the user name to the clipboard, press control-b. To copy the
password press control-c, to open the url press control-u. So, what I
do, since in most cases I know the user name and don't need to copy it,
is press control-c to copy the password, then control-u to open the url.
Because KeePass is awesome and secure, the password is removed from the
clipboard after about 10 seconds. I don't remember if this timing can be
changed. So, if you are a bit slower, open the url of the site you want
to log into, type your user name, and when you are ready for the
password, alt-tab to the Keepass entry and press control-c for the
password, and then alt-tab to the web page where you are ready for the
password and press control-v to paste. I use a clipboard manager to
store copied information, and even using that, the password is removed
from the clipboard memory after a bit. I really like that feature.
Of course, you should add an entry before you use this, right? I should
have mentioned that first. To add a new entry into your KeePass
database, press control-y. Now type the name of the entry. Let's say
Apple ID. Press tab to reach the user name and type that in. In my case
it might be [email protected]. Next press tab and you will reach the
password entry. You can type the password you already use, or you can
press tab to the button which Window-Eyes just reads as button and press
space on it. This is the random password generator button. KeePass is
very good about the random passwords it generates for you. Obviously you
only want to use this when creating a new account on a web site, or if
you are changing an existing account's password. In any case, after the
password edit box and random button, pressing tab again takes you to the
confirmation edit box. Either manually type your existing password in
again, or just skip it if you used the random generator since it will
already be in there. Now tab to get to the url edit box. Type in the
url, example. http://appleid.apple.com and then press tab. This will
take you to notes. you can put notes in here to talk about your entry.
For example when I added my bank entry, this is where I put in my
routing number, account number, and visa debit card number. The rest of
the things you can do when adding a new entry are more advanced and not
used by me, so I won't cover them. However you can attach a file to the
entry, maybe a picture of a card, or photo ID, or whatever. In any case,
the user name, password, url, and notes are enough for me. Press tab
until you reach the ok button and press enter. Bingo!!! You have a new
entry in your database file which you added from the PC.
If you are a lastpass user or other secure password of some other kind
user, you can import various formats into KeePass so you don't have to
manually enter everything. Also, there is a plugin I read about which
does the opening of the web page for you, enters your user name and the
password and presses enter for you all automagically, but I haven't
gotten that or verified if it works or not. In the mean time, doing it
this way is enough for me because in most cases I already go to the url
I want, and enter the right user name, so it's just a matter of getting
the password in the clipboard for pasting.
The kdb file can be located wherever you want, my documents, or
whatever, but the neat thing is you can save it in your Dropbox folder.
I wouldn't recommend the public sub-folder, but hey, maybe you like
living on the edge. Now next is the MiniKeePass app from the iPhone.
When you first open the app, it tells you that you have no databases.
You can create a new one if you will not be copying the PC version,
let's say that you only want to keep secure information local on your
iDevice and so all I wrote about the usage of the PC program above is
worthless to you. Or, if you want to use both, you can import the
existing database. To create a new database, just tap add, and give it a
name and type the password for it twice to confirm. Now, you have a new
one which you can add things to or whatever. I'll get back to that
later. To import an existing database you can use file sharing, or
dropbox. If using file sharing, connect your iPhone to the pc, run
iTunes, arrow to the device section, tab to the apps section and press
space, now f6 until you reach the file sharing apps section. down arrow
to MiniKeePass and then tab to the add button. Press space and locate
the database file you want to add to MiniKeePass. tab to apply and press
space. It sounds like a lot of steps, but is really easy. If you want to
import via dropbox, make sure the kdb file is in your dropbox account
folder, then from your iPhone open the dropbox app or something similar
which can read files from dropbox.. Double-tap and hold on the keepass
database file and one of the choices will be to open it with
MiniKeePass. That's all there is to it.
OK, so, now the usage of the iOS app. First let's cover adding a new
entry. Once the database is open, you will find the general category and
maybe some other ones. As I mentioned before I erase the other stuff and
only keep general. To delete a category, do the standard delete of
double-tap and hold, then slide to the right. Then double-tap to
confirm. I don't know if the iOS 6 action rotor will work here since I
don't have iOS6 yet. In any case, double-tap the general category so you
can open it. Now to add an entry, find the add button on the bottom
right, then tap that. You will be asked to add a group, i.e. category,
or new entry. Choose entry. You are taken to the new entry screen. For
the most part the edit fields here are the same as the KeePass program
on the PC. Title, user name, password, url, and comments instead of
notes. There is also an attachment button labeled 48 button, but I don't
use that. Right next to the password field is a wrench button. This
takes you to the random password generator screen. You can choose what
kind of random password to generate, i.e. the length, and what character
sets to use. When finished here, press done. Then you will see a random
password already filled in for you. Pretty nifty I think. Once you have
filled in the title, user name, password, url, and any comments or
notes, tap the done button if the keyboard is present. It's a bit
misleading because once you have the information in, you can tap cancel
to go back. and the entry is still saved. At first this threw me off
because I thought it would cancel the entire entry. However I think when
you add a new entry, what's actually happening is a blank new entry is
automatically reserved in the database and all you do is fill in the
space with the information, so the entry is already created and you are
just canceling or going back to the main list. So, don't let that
confuse you. Now you should see in the list that you have the new entry.
Hopefully you removed the words new entry and gave it a real meaning.
Here's where it gets fun. Double-tap the entry you want to look at. If
there are notes, they will be shown here. As I mentioned before, for my
bank entry I have my account numbers, etc. So if I need them to tell
someone on the phone or whatever, I get them from here. But let's say
you want to log into a site, or need to type in a password, I'll use
MyCheckFree for this. The entry for MyCheckFree has of course the title
as My Check Free, the username as what I use, and the password for it.
Along with all this is the url since you kind of need that. So first I
double-tap the password entry. the phone prompts me with 2 choices, copy
or edit. Choosing edit will let me edit the password, but copy will of
course copy it to the clipboard. Now I double-tap the url entry and I am
prompted to open or edit. I choose open of course and am taken in Safari
to the my check free web site. Since I already know my user name, I
proceed to type that into the user name field, and then use the rotor to
get to edit and flick down to paste and paste in my password.
In closing, you can of course pin or password protect the MiniKeePass
app itself, but since your database already has a password of its own,
to me this is a bit redundant. I'm paranoid, but not that much. If you
will be using both a PC database and iPhone database and you want to
keep them synced, remember this isn't automatic. So, to some that will
be marks down. It's fine for me however and as long as I remember to
update my database after making a change then I'm good to go. Also, this
solution doesn't require you to have an account on someone else's server
space like LastPass, and heck, you don't even have to use Dropbox if you
don't want to as long as you sync via iTunes. The nice thing is that if
you at first only use this to keep secure notes and information on the
iPhone itself, you can later expand that to also include the PC as well.
So, there is a bit of flexibility. Lastly, the KeePass app and the
encryption it uses is open source, so this means no secrets on how it's
done. This means it can be verified by people who know how, that it
doesn't have back doors.
I hope this message will help some people out.
--
Raul A. Gallegos
“You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They
left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.'” - Tommy
Cooper
Home Page: http://raulgallegos.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rau47
Facebook: http://facebook.com/rau47
On 11/7/2012 8:39 AM, Eric wrote:
Raul, you are right on with what I want to accomplish. I would like to have a
list of my passwords and usernames.
Yesterday I took a look at key pass, which you had recommended. Although it
looks like it may do what I want, I have no idea how to make it work. It really
looks as though it was written for users far more knowledgeable than me.
I just simply want to have a copy of usernames and passwords wherever I happen
to need them, on the iPhone or PC, et cetera.
I am currently using the keeper program on the iPhone. I sure agree with you
that they spam their users. However, that program does not seem to work on
windows XP and JAWS,. On my PC, I am using a simple little database program
called pass keeper this means that every time I add an account or change any
information I have to remember to do it in both places.
Thanks for any additional information. I did not look at the many pass, but
maybe it is written for us basic kind of users.
--
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