beyond password managers...

frank skyline

— 2 min read
Share

TLDR You should get a password manager. Just make it offline. this isn't a "best password manager " post

I, myself use KeepassXD as my password manager. Prior to that i was using Bitwarden even going as far as self hosting, But i decided that i wanted to get something that is less dependent on bitwarden(no hate) and more self contained. Now the biggest "drawback" of keepass is there is no "auto sync" like normal password managers. you can copy it manually or use something like syncthing.

HARDWARE - :3

Now password managers are based and cool, but even with a strong password or passphrase your accounts servers, and even your password manager can be cracked. It is never bad to have 2FA/MFA (two-factor or multi-factor authentication).

A easy way to explain 2fa and mfa, Treat it like a second door behind your main door with a separate key that is needed to open said door.

Here is the list of types of MFA/2FA

  1. sms - sms based 2fa is the worst for a host of reasons, but it's better than nothing.

  2. passkeys/biometric - is far better but it's vendor locked and not ideal - it uses something like your phone to do the authentication/

  3. TOTP is normally software based like aeigis or google auth. better then sms and less locked in then passkeys

  4. Hardware keys, like solokeys nitro and yubikeys, this is one of the most secure ways to do mfa/2fa, and they have host of other use cases. less convenient and can be bad if you lose them.

Now on here is a link to a technical overview of hardware keys. it's not important on how they work , but good to know they do work.

hardwarekeys

Nitro dose a good job of explaining the pros of a hardware key setup.

DRAWBACKS + solutions.

The main drawback of hardware keys beyond they can be "inconvenient " and they have a cost. is that if you lose the key, you're kinda fucked unless the service gives you backup codes to download (which you should ). The only solution to this is to have a second key and you use both to setup the account at the same time. put the backup key somewhere safe.

I hope this pushes people to use 2fa and a password. ill be doing a setup guide soon.

Read more