KeePass Password Safe – Part 2

KeePass organizes your secret stuff into groups. Default groups include: General, Windows, Network, Internet, eMail and Homebanking.

Creating your own custom groups is super easy. From the left pane, right click database, choose Add Group.

KeePass is a great way of tracking all your web site passwords. Simply select appropriate Group then add new entry. In the new entry window fill-in appropriate information including Description, Username, Password and URL. If you can’t think of a new strong password, KeePass has a built-in password generator. With this tool all your passwords will be super strong and more importantly unique.

With your new entry safely in KeePass, you no longer have to remember specific login credentials. Visiting a site is easy too, either manually browse or from within KeePass locate specific entry, right click and choose URL(s) > Open in Browser. KeePass will open a new browser tab and navigate to specified URL.

At this point, place your cursor at the first form field, typically Username or Email Address, open KeePass with CTRL-ALT-K, locate your entry in the database and choose Perform Auto-Type or CTRL-V. KeePass will auto-magically fill stored login information from the database into your form. Sounds great, right?

Yes and no. Here is the thing. KeePass lacks Browser integration, therefore from my testing it worked on most sites I use, which is great. The remainder required a tweak, typically sites with additional fields or atypical login sequence. However this is easily rectified by tweaking Key sequence settings for your specific site. This can be found under the Auto-Type tab within settings of database entries. Default key sequence includes {USERNAME}{TAB}{PASSWORD}{ENTER}, however additional custom key strokes like {UP}{DOWN}{LEFT}{RIGHT} to name a few are available and can easily be added. By the way, these key sequences can just as easily be set for Windows programs, not just browser forms.

But personally I think KeePass is a great tool for tracking browser based login forms. And this seems to be true for most users out there, at least from what I’ve read online. Certainly it helped me increase my online login security. I no longer have to remember 20 different passwords. With KeePass I remember one password and the rest is handled by KeePass. Best of all if one site login is compromised I don’t have scramble and change passwords at other sites, because I know they are all strong and unique.

Now if I forget or lose my KeePass database master password, I’m up the creek without a paddle so to speak. Therefore I always suggest a phrase or sentence because it’s complex and easy to remember. No post-It notes required. As a password safe I give KeePass one and half thumbs up. Should KeePass ever add browser integration it would be a solid two thumbs up.

If you visit KeePass Help Center, you’ll notice various available plug-ins including browser integration. However these plug-ins are not developed or reviewed by KeePass. Therefore I would urge caution in using such free add-ons. You could be asking for trouble, never know what information is leaking through these add-ons. Typically Open Source developers are honest, but you’ll always find a bad apple when you least expect it.