Of course I’m not asking you to give away your passwords. But for those of you who have so many, how do you keep track of them all? Do you use any unique methods?
I know many people struggle between having something that’s easy to remember and something that’s easy to guess. If you keep a note with your passwords on it, for example, it can be stolen, lost, or destroyed, or if you make them according to a pattern that’s easy to remember, the wrong people might find them easier to guess.
KeePassXC/DX.
I use passphrases from movies of shows that I like. Then add a special symbol and a number that I like.
Thanks for nothing you useless reptile!61
This has 100.54 bits of entropy. I consider anything above 60 sufficient enough
I worked in IT at a company years ago that standardized on song lyrics in a similar fashion.
Similar, but I just take the first letter of each word, keep proper pronunciation, and turn some into numbers as appropriate.
Two trailer park girls go round the outside, round the outside, round the outside.
Becomes
2tpggrto,rto,rto.
No, for the record I do not use THAT song.
Wouldn’t it be better to use the full quote, with some random numbers and symbols interspersed?
Depends. I like this because it’s shorter, but still maintains a good level of security, and I’ll never forget it. Technically the full password is stronger, yeah. This also has the added benefit of someone being able to see you type it or catch a glimpse of it plaintext for some reason and have NO chance of remembering it.
Either way, they’re both pretty secure, I just don’t wanna type several lines of… Anything each time I log in.
Nice try
Keepassxc remembers for me.
Bitwarden
In my experience the best way to remember passwords is to… Get a password manager
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This is 100% the best advise. But how do you remember your password managers password? I highly recommend Computerphiles tips, I’ve never seen it explained better: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3NjQ9b3pgIg
how do you remember your password managers password
another password manager
It’s easy enough to remember one long password, when it’s prompted often.
Until finally there is one to bind them all.
And that password is written on a scrap of paper attached to my monitor. Perfect security.
https://xkcd.com/936/ Because theres one for every situation.
I definitely use a password wallet.
And because I’m getting into the demographic where my peers are going through end of life planning (whether for their parents or themselves), I have written my master password down and keep it with the will/“very important papers”. Whoever settles your affairs will thank you.
Also, since I’ve wrangled with this one specifically, when a loved one passes keep their mobile number active so you can navigate mfa and password resets for their accounts.
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For cases where I may not have access to a password manager, I have a standard procedure where I’ll take the website url, add a fixed salt word, and run it through a hash function.
Either this is a common algorithm or you might be my friend who also does this.
I use a hardware password manager that connects over USB or bluetooth for most things. The few things that I use often I have a system for, and that system is popular culture.
Love “The Prisoner of Azkaban”? Initialize it, and add the publish date some where: HP&TPoA|1999
Starship troopers fan? Initialize a memorable quote. “The enemy can not push a button… if you disable his hand. Medic!”: Tecnpab…iydhh.M! Need numbers? Find a quote with numbers, or add the release year, or the number of times you watched it that one weekend where you and a friend watched it 32 times.
Like TV shows more? How about the fourth episode of family guy: S1-MindOverMuder-E4.
Metal Fan? I do love track three off of Metallica’s 1983 album: #3|Motorbreath-1983
Etc.
This is pretty much what I used to do before I got a password manager. Only difference is I would take that short phrase and randomly drop letters or replace them with numbers or symbols, and also random capitalization. Then I’d just practice typing it for 5 minutes until it was muscle memory. After about a week, I could no longer consciously remember the specifics of the password, just the key phrase and the associated muscle memory.
I actually try to remember as few of my passwords as possible. Take away my password manager and switch my keyboard from QWERTY to DVORAK (and scramble the number pad), and I’m not getting into anything other than my email and 1 bank account.
Password manager
I try to use passwords that look like sentences. For example you could “SpotifyIsAwesome!2024”. Easy to remember, hard to crack
Before password managers I used to come up with a phrase or nonsense word that was personally significant to me, or an inside joke. Some sort of “catch phrase” that would only make sense to me and maybe my closest friends. Sometimes just an initialism of something I’d know, like my ex-gf Angie (not her real name) had a gap in her teeth, so I’d tell my friends “Angie’s got a gap in her teeth so my dick’s gots to fit!” and so my password would be “Agagihtsmdg2f!”
