Solution to your password problems

If like me you need to set Administrator/Root/Enable,etc.. passwords on all your equipment so that no-one uses them unless absolutely necessary (i.e. everyone has their own usernames for auditing purposes). It can be a struggle storing them in a secure place just for emergencies.

Well, here is a little utility i came across which allows you to store the passwords in a database thats encrypted using AES and BlowFish, its free and its opensource.

If anyone wants to take a look then here is the link, we use this at work as it saves writing them all down and putting them in the safe (you could i suppose put it on a floppy and still store it in the safe). The best thing is that the application doesn't need installing and can run from a pen drive or floppy.

keepass.sourceforge.net/

Enjoy

Just the thought of keeping passwords in an electronic form (even though encrypted) makes the hairs on the back of my neck stick up.

I understand the idea behind it; I once had to use 3 keys, 2 PINS and 3 passwords on a callout to reset an intruder alarm activated by a window left open.

A sheet of paper locked away in a safe has always been the most secure way I have found to hold them. Depending on how complex you make your passwords, giving different devices the same certain passwords and being anal enough to go around making sure all passwords are religiously changed manually on a periodic basis has always been the best way for me personally.

The obvious downside is that if a hacker gets one password they get them all

I've had a look at KeePass in the past and it looks good. I however use PasswordSafe which was originally created by Bruce Schneier (the guy who designed Blowfish and Twofish). You can also get compatible programs that run on Linux, BSD, Solaris and OS X.