To get to the password page, you need to enter the phrase “password of xx characters” where xx is the length of the password that you want to generate.

Wolfram Alpha then displays a random password, its phonetic form and additional passwords in its interface. The password uses alpha-numeric characters by default. You can regenerate the passwords if you like with a click on new password.

Probably the most interesting information on the page is the time it would take to crack the password. It would for instance take up to 165 quadrillion years at 100,000 passwords per second to crack a 16 character password.

You can click on the specific password rules link at the top of the screen to allow or disallow specific password rules. Allowed by default are upper and lower case letters, numbers and similar characters. Disallowed are special characters. If you add special characters to the mix you increase the time it would take to brute force the password by a lot.

It is obviously possible to change the character count, which is handy as some applications limit the password length to six, eight or twelve digits.

The password generator at the Wolfram Alpha site can be handy in situations where you need to come up with a secure password but do not have access to a software based password generator. This can be the case on your computer at work where you are not allowed to install third party software.

Have you used Wolfram Alpha in the past? If so, what did you like, did not you like about it?

Most users make use of password managers to create and store passwords and other log in related information for them as it becomes extremely difficulty to remember the passwords otherwise.

Object-based Password is a Firefox add-on that uses a different approach. The password generator can use objects to generate passwords. Objects currently supported are images, links or text. A password can be generated from a local image, an image on the current website, text on the current website that is highlighted or links that point to certain file types such as jpg, pdf or mp3. The generated password is always the same and can be automatically added to the password box if it is right-clicked and the generate password option is selected from the context menu.

The method itself offers some interesting options. Users do not need to remember the passwords, only the object that they have used to create it. They do need to make sure that it is accessible whenever they want to log into the website or service though.

A simple example would be to always use the first four words of the second paragraph on a page for the password. This ensures that the object is always in reach, providing that the website does not change their text. Other options include selecting an image from the local computer or objects on a private website for the password generation.

The concept is definitely interesting. Many users will probably be appalled by the missing option to save passwords so that they do not have to be “generated” every time the service or website is accessed. This however could also be taken care of by saving the passwords and login data in the built-in password manager.

Object-based Password is available for direct installation at the Firefox add-on repository. The extension is compatible with Firefox 3 and 4.

KeePassX is a Linux only (for now) tool that doesn’t just store passwords safely, it stores passwords, usernames, urls, attachments, and comments – all in one convenient, safe location. You can sort your entries in groups and even search KeePassX. In this article I will show you how to install and use KeePassX.

Installation

Installing KeePassX is simple. You can follow one of these methods:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool
2. Search for “keepassx” (no quotes)
3. Mark KeePassX for installation
4. Click Apply to  install the tool

Or, to install via command line:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. su to root (if you are not using a distro with sudo).
3. Issue the command yum install keepassx (or sudo apt-get install keepassx).

That’s it. The application is now installed. Now you are ready to use.

Usage

Figure 1

The first thing you have to do is open up the tool. You will find it in Applications > Accessories. When the tool opens you will find a very simple main window (see Figure 1).

In order to create a store for sensitive information you must first create a new database. To do this either click the New button (far left on the toolbar) or click File > New Database. When you do this you will be asked to set the master key for the database. You can either set a password or use a key file. If you opt for a key file you can either a GPG key file you already have, or you can use KeePassX to generate one for you.

If you want to use a gpg key file (and not a randomly generated one, you can use gpg like so, to extract a key:

gpg –export -a “USERNAME” > KEY_FILE

Where USERNAME is the name of the gpg user and KEY_FILE is the name of the file you want to generate.

Once you have your database created you can then begin to add groups and entries to it. This is quite simple. If this particular database is going to contain client information you might want to create a new group for clients. If you intend to only use one database to house all of your information you could always create two groups:

• Clients
• Personal

I would take this even further and add sub-groups to the Clients group, one sub-group for each client.

Figure 2

After you have your groups worked out you can then add entries to them. To add an entry all you need to do is click the Key icon or click Entries > Add New Entry. When the new window pops up you just need to enter the necessary information for the entry.

In the password section you can add a password (and even have it masked) or you can even have KeePassX generate a random password for you. To view the password just click the “eye” icon. The passwords generated by KeePassX are really strong (and impossible to memorize).

If you are using your own passwords, KeePassX will indicate to you how strong they are. For example, one password I use for a particular login was only 88 Bit. Maybe it’s time for me to change that password? You can also set KeePassX to expire particular passwords…reminding you to change them so you are a safer users.

Once you have completed your entry, click the OK button and the entry will be stored. Complete the entire database and click File > Save Database and, if this is the first time you’ve saved this database, KeePassX will ask you to name the database file.

Final thoughts

KeePassX has a lot of features you won’t find in other tools of a similar function. Install this on all the machines you use, share the database file between them, and enjoy not having to strain your memory to remember all that trusted information.

RoboForm is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems and can be installed directly, on a USB device or on mobile devices such as Windows Mobile, Symbian or Blackberry. The software integrates nicely with web browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer or AOL / MSN and displays a toolbar that provides access to all the application’s functions and there is also a System Tray icon providing the same.

The password manager will automatically catch data that is entered in password forms and provides the means to store those passwords in the application so that it can be used to automatically log into the website or service.

Information are stored in so called passcards which do not only contain information like the username or password but additional parameters like cookie length or emails. The information can be protected with a master password which is similar to the feature of the same name in Firefox. The data is therefor protected and save from prying eyes until the master password is provided.

Keyboard shortcuts speed up the process further by providing access to some of the functions and menus. The password manager is only one of the features of RoboForm. It will also aid the user during registration.

It is not a problem to use very long and secure passwords since all passwords are stored in the application. The password generator helps the user by generating a secure password for the website or service.

It provides options to select the length of the password, the allowed characters and the minimum amount of numbers. The password generator will also display the bit strength of the password to give the user an indication of the strength.

Passwords are only one type of information that have to be provided during registration. RoboForm makes use of so called identities that can be used to fill in the other information automatically as well. Identities are data sets that contain information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers and any other type of data the user likes to add.

These information can then be used to automatically fill a registration form which can be a huge time saver for users who regularly sign up for new services on the Internet. Different identities are available to distinguish different users or different environments such as work and home.

Another useful feature of RoboForm is the note taking module. It can be used to store notes securely on the computer. Notes can also be protected by the master password so that no one can access them without providing the master password first. Notes are simple text documents that contain information saved by the user.

RoboForm is an interesting application for users who spend a lot of time on the Internet. If you ever had to register to 20+ services on a day you know how much time it takes to fill out all the information over and over again. Using RoboForm this could have been done in a fraction of the time since the data would have to be entered only once by the user.

We got five RoboForm Pro licenses. If you want one leave a comment below.

A good password management software should ensure data security, provide password generation and integration into common web browsers to make the life of the user as comfortable as possible.

The password management software Last Pass does all of that and much more. It currently supports Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox on Windows, Linux and Macintosh. It provides the option to import the existing passwords from Internet Explorer, Firefox and multiple password management software applications like KeePass and RoboForm and makes them available on their secure website and in the browser of choice.

The password manager automatically recognizes websites that it has user data stored for in its database and will fill out the login forms automatically so that it is only a matter of clicking on login to login to the website.

Each password and the rest of the user data can be accessed on the last pass website. Sites can be loaded from there and data changed. The online profile provides access to another interesting feature: It is possible to fill out form data for login forms so that it will be automatically filled out as well when the user registers at a new service.

The password generator comes in handy when registering to a new service on the Internet. A hotkey or the notification on top of the website can be used to open the password generator which can be configured to suite the website’s requirements.

The Password Management Software Last Pass will also recognize password changes and ask the user if he wants to store the new password in the database. The passwords can be easily backed up and restored to access them on multiple computers. Since all of them are stored in encrypted form on the Last Pass website it’s only a matter of entering the login information and / or installing the plugin for the browser to access the passwords on other computers.

Windows users can also use a portable USB client that can connect to the password management service and pull the passwords from there after proving the correct login details.

One interesting feature is the function to share passwords. Have you ever send someone passwords in plaintext before? That should be a thing of the past because passwords can now be shared securely using Last Pass as well.

Lastly there is a feature to supply different login credentials if more than one account is stored in the password manager for a website.

The only problem that was encountered during tests happened when trying to change passwords on websites. The generated password would fill out the Old Password and the first form of the New Password field. A workaround for this was to copy the password from the password generator, let it paste the password and paste it manually in the second password field and enter the old password manually. Not a huge deal but something that could probably be easily fixed in future builds.

Last Pass is a comfortable password management software that should appeal to many users.

Using a password software has some serious advantages over the other methods described in the first paragraph. Password softwares like MobileWitch Pass Safe use encryption to store the data which is obviously safer than relying on browsers or text files to store the passwords.

MobileWitch Pass Safe is a specialized product that is delivered as a Windows password software and a mobile client. That’s an excellent solution for the mobility problematic. It does not help if your passwords are securely stored on your desktop computer at home if you have to access them at work or university.

The first step is to create a new database and select a master password and / or keyfile for it.

The master password will be used to encrypt the database and is the only way to decrypt the contents and see the passwords.

The Password Software uses categories like Homebanking and eMail to sort user accounts. Each new user account that is entered into the software consists of a title, username, url, password, notes, an icon and expiration information. Some of the parameters are optional.

The strength of the password is shown in a strength bar and the program provides access to a password generator right from the new entry menu.

The password generator offers many functions and parameters which can be stored as password generation profiles so that they do not have to be edited during each password generation phase.

Pass Safe can import data from CSV, Codewallet and Password Safe and export the data as txt, xml or csv files. The password manager supports dragging and dropping usernames and passwords from the manager into another software. It provides several comfortable functions like double-clicking the password field to copy its contents into the Windows Clipboard.

The database will be stored in a file called Database.kdb which can be imported in the mobile phone version. There does not seem to be an option to create new passwords in the mobile phone version which means it can only be used to access the existing data.

Update: Password Safe has lots of similarities with Keepass, it uses an identical interface and it seems like the password software has been compiled using the KeePass source which is freely available. Since Keepass is offering the same functionality it is advised to download and use this password manager instead.

The link to Safe Pass has been removed until the matter is cleared.

Password Generator (click here for a windows version) makes sure that the password that is generated will be hard to brute force and impossible to guess because it is not related to your personal life in any way. The entire process takes place in three steps. The first step involves choosing a password size ranging from 32bit to 2048bit which influences the password length. The author suggests using 40-72 bits for normal security and 90-128 bits for high security.

72 bits for instance means a password with 12 chars, 1024 bits would mean a password with unbelievable 171 chars. After choosing the password size you have to type some random keys (longer for greater sizes) which are used to compute a password. The last step displays the password. The default encoding is base64, you can also opt for hexadecimal or pass phrases which influence the length of the password.

You might have a problem remembering the password and I suggest you use a program that saves the password safely. I wrote a little article about a secure password manager pins which you might want to try.