Finish "Using DisPass to manage your passwords"
This commit is contained in:
parent
e7505fafbe
commit
00d982486f
2 changed files with 410 additions and 1 deletions
|
|
@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
|
||||||
#+TITLE: Using DisPass to manage your passwords
|
#+TITLE: Using DisPass to manage your passwords
|
||||||
|
#+DATE: 2016-02-14
|
||||||
|
#+COLESLAW_TAGS: dispass
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
*tl;dr*: If you don’t care about any of the back story and just want
|
*tl;dr*: If you don’t care about any of the back story and just want
|
||||||
to know how to use DisPass to manage passwords, skip to [[Managing
|
to know how to use DisPass to manage passwords, skip to [[Managing
|
||||||
|
|
@ -251,4 +253,4 @@ passwords]] for instant gratification.
|
||||||
* Footnotes
|
* Footnotes
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
[fn:1] I refuse to use the term hackers, because to me that means
|
[fn:1] I refuse to use the term hackers, because to me that means
|
||||||
something completely different, and I hope to you as well.
|
something completely [[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/cracker.html][different]], and I hope to you as well.
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
407
dispass_passwords.post
Normal file
407
dispass_passwords.post
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,407 @@
|
||||||
|
;;;;;
|
||||||
|
title: Using DisPass to manage your passwords
|
||||||
|
date: 2016-02-14
|
||||||
|
tags: dispass
|
||||||
|
format: html
|
||||||
|
;;;;;
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
<b>tl;dr</b>: If you don’t care about any of the back story and just want
|
||||||
|
to know how to use DisPass to manage passwords, skip to <a href="#orgheadline1">5</a> for instant gratification.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline2" class="outline-2">
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="orgheadline2"><span class="section-number-2">1</span> Introduction</h2>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
DisPass is a project that was started, and is still maintained, by a
|
||||||
|
<a href="https://babab.nl">friend</a> and former colleague of mine. I've been using it for quite
|
||||||
|
some time. It helps me feel safe online, knowing that all my
|
||||||
|
accounts have different and strong passwords.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
DisPass uses algorithms to make reproducible passphrases. Making it
|
||||||
|
a kind-of functional password manager, just like Haskell is a
|
||||||
|
functional programming language and Guix is a functional package
|
||||||
|
manager. Given the same input DisPass will always produce the same
|
||||||
|
output. This means that the generated passphrases are never stored
|
||||||
|
anywhere and cannot be discovered by crackers<sup><a id="fnr.1" class="footref" href="#fn.1">1</a></sup> and the like.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
The input for DisPass consists of a label, algorithm, length,
|
||||||
|
possibly a sequence number (depending on the algorithm used) and
|
||||||
|
finally a password. All but the label and password have some default
|
||||||
|
value, but can also be specified through command-line switches.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline3" class="outline-2">
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="orgheadline3"><span class="section-number-2">2</span> The Labelfile</h2>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Being a functional anything usually means that whatever you're using
|
||||||
|
doesn't maintain any state. This can be true for DisPass, but isn't
|
||||||
|
necessarily so. It can be a challenge to remember the size,
|
||||||
|
algorithm and sequence number for a large number of labels, so there
|
||||||
|
is the labelfile.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
The labelfile is normally located in either
|
||||||
|
<code>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dispass/labels</code> or <code>$HOME/.dispass/labels</code>, but
|
||||||
|
can also be specified on the command-line. It contains the metadata
|
||||||
|
for the labels, and the labels themselves. This lets you run
|
||||||
|
something like:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass generate foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
And it'll know the size, algorithm and sequence number for the label
|
||||||
|
“foobar”, assuming you’ve saved it to the labelfile. The labelfile
|
||||||
|
is unencrypted, but this information is useless as long as nobody
|
||||||
|
knows the password(s) you use to generate the passphrases.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline4" class="outline-2">
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="orgheadline4"><span class="section-number-2">3</span> Setting up</h2>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
DisPass is easy to install if you have either Archlinux or pip
|
||||||
|
installed. Windows is a bit more problematic and I don’t even know
|
||||||
|
how to get started on a Mac personally, but there is no reason it
|
||||||
|
can’t work. It doesn’t have many dependencies, so you don’t need to
|
||||||
|
install anything else first.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
The latest release is quite old, but a new release should be coming
|
||||||
|
soon. There haven’t been too many developments since version
|
||||||
|
0.3.0-dev because it basically does what it needs to do, and the
|
||||||
|
user base is currently very small, so bugs might not be encountered
|
||||||
|
too quickly. Don’t think that it’s an abandoned project, if you look
|
||||||
|
at it’s <a href="https://github.com/babab/DisPass">github</a> page you’ll see that it’s seen a bit of development
|
||||||
|
again as of late.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
In the case of Archlinux I’ve provided packages in the AUR for both
|
||||||
|
<a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/python2-dispass/">python2-dispass</a> version 0.2.0 and <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/python2-dispass-git/">python2-dispass-git</a>. Installing
|
||||||
|
either of these like any regular old aur package will get you set
|
||||||
|
up. Incidentally, if you’re using Archlinux on x86<sub>64</sub> and have the
|
||||||
|
testing package repository enabled, you could also use <a href="https://ryuslash.org/packages/">my package
|
||||||
|
repository</a>, though no guarantees that it’ll ever work are given
|
||||||
|
there.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
For a general pip installation it should be as easy as running:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
sudo pip install dispass
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline10" class="outline-2">
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="orgheadline10"><span class="section-number-2">4</span> UIs</h2>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Seeing as how my friend would like it to be generally useful, and
|
||||||
|
he’s a VIM user, there is both a GUI and CLI interface. Since I’m an
|
||||||
|
Emacs user I’ve created an Emacs and a Conkeror interface for it as
|
||||||
|
well.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline5" class="outline-3">
|
||||||
|
<h3 id="orgheadline5"><span class="section-number-3">4.1</span> CLI</h3>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-1">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
The CLI is what gets the most attention and gets developed the
|
||||||
|
most. I will be working with this in the <a href="#orgheadline1">5</a>
|
||||||
|
section.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline6" class="outline-3">
|
||||||
|
<h3 id="orgheadline6"><span class="section-number-3">4.2</span> GUI</h3>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-2">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
There is a basic GUI included with dispass, it can be started with
|
||||||
|
either the <code>gdispass</code> or the <code>dispass gui</code> commands. It requires
|
||||||
|
tkinter to be installed. It doesn't do everything the CLI does, but
|
||||||
|
there are plans to improve it and use a different gui library (such
|
||||||
|
as Qt). In some situations it can copy the generated passphrases
|
||||||
|
directly to the clipboard, but this is only true on GNU/Linux, not
|
||||||
|
on Windows.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline7" class="outline-3">
|
||||||
|
<h3 id="orgheadline7"><span class="section-number-3">4.3</span> Emacs</h3>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-3">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
I wrote an Emacs interface when I started using DisPass. It tries
|
||||||
|
to copy the generated passwords directly to the clipboard, instead
|
||||||
|
of needing the user to copy it manually as the CLI does. It can
|
||||||
|
also insert generated passphrases into a buffer, such as the
|
||||||
|
minibuffer.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
It's available on <a href="https://github.com/ryuslash/dispass.el">github</a>.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline8" class="outline-3">
|
||||||
|
<h3 id="orgheadline8"><span class="section-number-3">4.4</span> Conkeror</h3>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-4">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
I also wrote a Conkeror interface some time later, because I didn't
|
||||||
|
want to keep copying and pasting the passphrases through one of the
|
||||||
|
other interfaces (usually Emacs). It inserts the generated
|
||||||
|
passphrases into the focused input.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
It's also available on <a href="https://github.com/ryuslash/cdispass">github</a>.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline9" class="outline-3">
|
||||||
|
<h3 id="orgheadline9"><span class="section-number-3">4.5</span> Wishlist</h3>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-5">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
As I mentioned, the idea is to expand the GUI and use a different
|
||||||
|
gui library for it, to make it look a little better. The
|
||||||
|
functionality should also be extended to do everything the CLI
|
||||||
|
does.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
A Firefox extension is also still on the list of desirable
|
||||||
|
interfaces. I'm not sure how plausible it is with the new
|
||||||
|
WebExtension plugin api, I haven't looked into it yet. I don't
|
||||||
|
think chrom(e|ium) allows developers to call external programs,
|
||||||
|
which is an obstacle, but I haven't looked at this either.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline1" class="outline-2">
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="orgheadline1"><span class="section-number-2">5</span> Managing passwords</h2>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-5">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Now for the real fun. Generating passphrases is simple. Use the
|
||||||
|
<code>generate</code> command:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass generate foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
If no entry exists in the labelfile for <code>foobar</code>, it uses the
|
||||||
|
defaults, which at the time of writing are a length of 30, and the
|
||||||
|
algorithm <code>dispass1</code>. This algorithm doesn't use a sequence
|
||||||
|
number. It can generate more than one passphrase at a time.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
The generated passphrases are presented in an ncurses screen so they
|
||||||
|
aren't kept in your terminal emulator's scrollback history, at least
|
||||||
|
in some cases. You can use the <code>-o</code> switch to do away with the
|
||||||
|
ncurses screen and just output a line for each generated
|
||||||
|
passphrase. Together with something like awk this can be used to
|
||||||
|
directly send some command the passphrase it needs. For example, if
|
||||||
|
the program <code>foo</code> needs a password from stdin, you could use:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass generate -o foobar | awk '{ print $2 }' | foo
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
You can specify a different length, algorithm and sequence number by
|
||||||
|
using command line switches. For example, I normally prefer the
|
||||||
|
<code>dispass2</code> algorithm since it adds a sequence number. For some crazy
|
||||||
|
reason the place I use the passphrase limits it to a length of 16
|
||||||
|
characters and I've had to change my password twice, so I use a
|
||||||
|
sequence number of 3. I could use:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass generate -l 16 -a dispass2 -s 3 foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
It would be difficult to remember all this, so I personally would
|
||||||
|
add it to the labelfile. To do this I can use the <code>add</code>
|
||||||
|
command. Basically this is:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass add foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
This creates an entry in the label file with the same default values
|
||||||
|
as the generate command: a length of 30 and using the <code>dispass1</code>
|
||||||
|
algorithm. To use the values we used before we can instead do:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass add foobar:16:dispass2:3
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
This way we can add multiple entries with different values at once:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass add foo:16 bar::dispass2:2
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
This would add the <code>foo</code> label with a length of 16, using the
|
||||||
|
default algorithm and the label <code>bar</code> with the default length, using
|
||||||
|
the <code>dispass2</code> algorithm and the sequence number 2. As you can see
|
||||||
|
you can omit any trailing parameters and leave any parameters in
|
||||||
|
between empty to use their default values.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
If you added it before I showed you the extended add syntax you can
|
||||||
|
use <code>update</code> to change an existing entry in the labelfile:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass update foobar 13:dispass2:3
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Unlike the <code>add</code> command, the <code>update</code> command only updates one
|
||||||
|
label at a time.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Now, the place I use my password was cracked by crackers<sup><a id="fnr.1.100" class="footref" href="#fn.1">1</a></sup>, my
|
||||||
|
password was stolen. That's no biggie. I use the <code>list</code> command to
|
||||||
|
check what my sequence number is:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass list
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Then I can update my labelfile and use a new sequence number:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass update foobar ::4
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
I could also use the convenient <code>increment</code> command:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass increment foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Everytime the sequence number is changed the input changes and so
|
||||||
|
does the passphrase. So a simple call to the <code>increment</code> command
|
||||||
|
will completely change your passphrase. This is nice, because
|
||||||
|
otherwise I'd have to change either the label or the password used
|
||||||
|
to generate the passphrase.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Actually, I just quit the job where I used my <code>foobar</code> label. I
|
||||||
|
still use many other labels and don't want my list to get too big. I
|
||||||
|
also don't want to delete the label in case I ever need to get back
|
||||||
|
in there, so I just disable it:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass disable foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
This keeps it in the labelfile, but commands such as <code>list</code> don't
|
||||||
|
show it anymore. But then they really need me back, and since I'm
|
||||||
|
now a freelance worker I can accommodate them, so I enable my label
|
||||||
|
again:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass enable foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
But now the place where I use the <code>foobar</code> label has gone out of
|
||||||
|
business (I mean, come on, using a maximum password length of 16 and
|
||||||
|
getting cracked by crackers all the time, are you really surprised?)
|
||||||
|
and their site has been taken offline. Now I really have no reason
|
||||||
|
to keep this label around, so I remove it:
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pre class="example">
|
||||||
|
dispass remove foobar
|
||||||
|
</pre>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div id="outline-container-orgheadline11" class="outline-2">
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="orgheadline11"><span class="section-number-2">6</span> Cons</h2>
|
||||||
|
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-6">
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Yes, this is an excellent project and I'm not just saying that
|
||||||
|
because a friend of mine wrote it. There are some things that it
|
||||||
|
just isn't suited for.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
When sharing a single account with someone else (don't do this!),
|
||||||
|
you can't expect the other party to use the same label and password
|
||||||
|
to generate the passphrase, if they're even tech-savvy enough to use
|
||||||
|
DisPass just like you. It also increases the amount of information
|
||||||
|
you need to remember to use DisPass. There are better programs to
|
||||||
|
store pre-generated passwords.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Due to the way the current algorithms are implemented there is a
|
||||||
|
limit to the length of the passphrases and that limit isn't entirely
|
||||||
|
consistent. This is only a problem when you need passphrases of more
|
||||||
|
than 100 characters, and I haven't had that problem yet.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
<div id="footnotes">
|
||||||
|
<h2 class="footnotes">Footnotes: </h2>
|
||||||
|
<div id="text-footnotes">
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<div class="footdef"><sup><a id="fn.1" class="footnum" href="#fnr.1">1</a></sup> <div class="footpara"><p class="footpara">
|
||||||
|
I refuse to use the term hackers, because to me that means
|
||||||
|
something completely <a href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/cracker.html">different</a>, and I hope to you as well.
|
||||||
|
</p></div></div>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue