this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

In my experience the best way to remember passwords is to.... Get a password manager

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

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

(Join 3-4 random, unrelated words for a strong, memorable password)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

how do you remember your password managers password

another password manager

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Until finally there is one to bind them all.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

And that password is written on a scrap of paper attached to my monitor. Perfect security.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

It's easy enough to remember one long password, when it's prompted often.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

https://xkcd.com/936/ Because theres one for every situation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

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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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

I have Bitwarden set up with a feature called Emergency Access. The credentials to access that is just stores in plain text on a piece of paper in a drawer that I frequently use. If I ever forget my master password, I pull out the paper and use the Emergency Access feature, and start the timer, I set it at one or two weeks.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago

I don't. Bitwarden and that's it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Like other have said, Bitwarden.

But I also would like to add: I use the Emergency Access feature in case of forgotten master password.

You basically set up another account and do a sort of "public key exchange handshake" with your main account. Then your secondary account becomes a way to recover your main account.

You can store the credentials to secondary account in plain text on a piece of paper in a drawer somewhere you have a habit of accessing (so you don't forget where you put it). Its doesn't matter if a snooping family member saw those credentials, theres a pre-set timer that needs to expire before access is granted. If I saw that timer being triggered, I'd know someone had been snooping, and I can just click deny access from my main account.

So if you somehow forget your main password, you find the paper with your secondary account and use it to request access to your primary account. And well you'd have to wait out the timer, but its better than losing your vault forever and having to reset every password.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

I only remember one password, the one to my password manager.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

I have hundreds of passwords, there’s no way I could manage that without a password manager.

1Password isn’t terrible, it’s pretty intuitive.

Bitwarden is another popular option.

Using the same (or similar) passwords for multiple things is a really bad idea.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

Password manager

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

KeePassXC/DX.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Bitwarden and be done.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Keepassxc remembers for me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Either this is a common algorithm or you might be my friend who also does this.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I have a friend who resets his passwords whenever he connects. So he only remembers one password, that of his email. He claims it's safer this way.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Theres.... There's something to it, I guess. Make sure your email is secure, and if not even you know your password, how can someone else. Christ, it sounds like a massive pain in the ass, though.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

For passwords you have to keep in your head, diceware. Surprised it’s not already mentioned! Basically you roll dice to choose words from a long wordlist until you have 6 or 7 words.

Human brains are good at remembering words. It’s way easier to remember a password that looks like:

grandson estimator virtuous scabbed poet parasitic

than it is to remember a random character string.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

They're all the same-ish.

Let's say my password is Token, but spelled like t0k3||

I would attach something related to the site on it, so if the site is lemmy for example, the password would be like

t0k3||Addictedtosurfing

If the site is Amazon something like

t0k3||Thanksformyfavoritejob

I called it "lock and key" style and I'd change the beginning part, the "lock", once a year.

So next year it'll be ef|=027Addictedtosurfing

These are examples lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Pretty much this. But I used a function of the host name, so it would be easier to remember.

It gets annoying when the site forces you to rotate the password. After that happened a couple of times I started using a password manager.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

You use 7 stars for your password?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

2 ways

1 password manager

  1. I use them very often. I have a bunch of different yes complex passwords that I’m using repeatedly throughout the day so brute force rote memory….

But yeah. Password manager

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I used to have a couple of letters from the site/service followed by an obscure dialectal word that's not found in dictionaries with a few characters replaced by numbers and symbols. Those two letters kind of work like salting to keep every hash of my password unique.

Now I just do bitwarden.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I worked in IT at a company years ago that standardized on song lyrics in a similar fashion:

4 Those about 2 rock we salute you!

I want 2 rock & roll all night

Etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

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!”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I have four passwords I memorize: my password manager, my main email, my work login, and a throw away password for stuff that doesn't matter too much (signing up for giveaways, throw away social media accounts, etc). For everything else I have the password manager create some twenty character monstrosity.

The four memorized ones are all nine letter words with numbers and symbols replacing letters usually always including a comma somewhere as I heard once that a comma makes a password hardet to crack (but, now thinking about it, I don't know where I heard that and it sounds like a myth).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

i have difficult & long unique passwords for each of the important things (emails, bank, any official gov or edu sites etc.) that i keep on a piece of paper in my notebook (with a few backup copies). And i also have 3 degrees of difficulty for my other passwords that i use like this: easy "i could not care less if this account got hacked, in fact i know this password has been leaked in plain text before so whatever", medium "i'd kinda suck if this got hacked but ultimately it'd not cause major issues", hard "i do not want this to be hacked"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I try to use passwords that look like sentences. For example you could "SpotifyIsAwesome!2024". Easy to remember, hard to crack

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I use postal codes, street names and house numbers of addresses where I previously lived. They contain numbers and capital letters, are random for anyone else, but in doubt I can always look them up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I pick one gnarly one, I memorize it, and leave it to a password manager.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I only try to remember two passwords. My email password and my password manager password. The rest and random gobbledy gook.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Fighting game combos, written in numpad notation. Like, for example,

8j2C,4C(2)2C6C236[A],2C5A(w)5C236[A],2C5B63214A,227C

Then you log into you password manager and use that instead.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

My passwords are unfortunately very... "patterned". Makes remembering them easier though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I remember them two characters at a time.

Theres a couple of passwords I remember, like for logging on my PC and into my password manager

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

For the work passwords I have to remember and cannot always access a password manager, I use pass phrases instead. Statistically, 3 random, non-similar words, are more secure than normal passwords. Changing random letters to symbols and capitalizing can further improve the security. For instance...

  • Stove glob3 hamst#r
  • pants Stuffin& quote
  • z1ptie float beet$l
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