I can’t keep up with all the passwords! There are too many passwords for me to manage, I used to find myself unable to access systems. Passwords are especially annoying on mobile devices with the tiny keyboard. I wanted a solution that works on both the Desktop and Mobile devices.

Lastpass is a password management option that I have used in the past. They have a free service but you have to pay to use there mobile apps which is not bad however I never liked the user interface on their Android App.

I stumbled upon this solution using KeePass which I wanted to document and share. This is a robust method and I wanted this guide to be newbie friendly. Let me know if you have any feedback.

What is required?

KeePass

“KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).” – http://keepass.info/

To share your password database between devices you can use an on-line cloud service such as Dropbox. You would save your password database file on Dropbox and each device would access this file. Changes would be synced between devices in this way. I would like to note that this part is optional. I figure many of you would be hesitant to store you password file on any cloud service. However since this file is encrypted I suspect this is no bigger risk than saving your secrets on Lastpass.com. Without this you would have to copy your password database file between your devices which I could see becoming a nightmare!

Ensure that you use a secure password. Even though the password database is encrypted your secrets/passwords are as safe as the password you use. Do not use this password any place else. It is important that you only use this password with Keepass. If you lose this password you will not be able to access your secrets.

Keepass allows you to set complex password. Since you will no longer have to try and remember your password you can make them as complex as you would like.2014-07-30_10-52-47

Desktop App

  1. Install Dropbox
  2. Install Keepass Windows (Linux user, package management tools)
  3. Create Password DB
  4. Set KeePass DataBase settings
  5. Update your passwords

2014-07-30_10-24-35Create new Database

2014-07-30_10-26-29Select your Dropbox folder and save in a folder. Create a new folder if required. 2014-07-30_10-27-37Name your database file. 2014-07-30_10-28-49Ensure that you set a secure database password. You should only use this password with keepass. If you forget this password you will not be able to access your secrets. 2014-07-30_10-31-05Update your database with all your passwords. 2014-07-30_11-18-23To use you copy user name and password and then paste in your apps and browser forms. Mobile Apps

Android: Keepass2Android

iOS: MiniKeePass

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