PasswordMaker Forums

Firefox/SeaMonkey/Mozilla/Netscape/Flock Browser Extension => Feature Requests / Enhancements => Topic started by: ajw on October 28, 2005, 06:56:29 PM

Title: auto-keep previously-generated password
Post by: ajw on October 28, 2005, 06:56:29 PM
Not sure how to handle this one...  It's sort-of a twist on ability to change master password without loss (http://forums.passwordmaker.org/index.php?showtopic=455)


I was logging in to my firewall from a different computer; one where I don't have PM installed.  So I got the password from PM on my notebook, wrote it down, and walked to the other computer.

Then I realized I had some characters I wasn't sure of - is this an "O" or a zero?   Is this a capital I or lower-case 'L' ?

So I wanted to change the character list - remove letters and digits that could be confused with each other.  But then I realized that would change the generated password - and if I did that, I'd lose the password I'm currently using!  (that would be a Bad Thing - then I wouldn't be able to log into my firewall!  :)

I'm not sure what's the best way to handle this kind of thing - some ideas are:

1) Ask the user if the previous password should be retained - it would be set into the password prefix and set the correct password length for it.

2) Save the previously-generated password - so when it changes, you still have access to the old password.  (But then why not save the last two passwords, or the last three, or every one ever generated for this account?  gets messy...)

3) create "alias" accounts - these would be the same account but with the old information (in this case the old character list) so the alias account would show the old password.  (I like the historical nature of this - I really like a history of changes to each account...)  This could allow something like a popup when Alt~ or auto-fill-in is used - something like "you have 3 passwords for this account, which should be used?" - and the aliases could be set to show or not-show in that popup.  This way, the previous password - or even many old passwords - are available as well as the new password, and the user has can change the web site to the new password and then mark the old password as "don't show any more" - or just delete the now-not-needed alias.

4) ???

- Al -
Title: auto-keep previously-generated password
Post by: Eric H. Jung on October 28, 2005, 07:45:55 PM
Hi Al,

Welcome back! You can already do this, albeit in a convoluted way. Create another account which is identical to the one you want to change. Put the new account in the same folder as the other and give it a name (or use the notes field) which indicates its history (e.g., password up until 10/25/05). Now change the original account's attributes as you like.

This will be much, much easier when Clone/Copy accounts is implemented.

-Eric
Title: auto-keep previously-generated password
Post by: ajw on October 29, 2005, 05:02:45 PM
Quote
Welcome back!
Thanks!

Quote
You can already do this, albeit in a convoluted way. Create another account which is identical to the one you want to change. Put the new account in the same folder as the other and give it a name (or use the notes field) which indicates its history (e.g., password up until 10/25/05). Now change the original account's attributes as you like.
Hmm...  Hadn't thought about it, but yeah, that works.  It *is* a bit of work though...

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This will be much, much easier when Clone/Copy accounts is implemented.
Yes, indeed!  So, -uh- (evil grin!)  when's clone/copy gonna show up?  :)

- Al -
Title: auto-keep previously-generated password
Post by: Eric H. Jung on October 29, 2005, 06:34:05 PM
Any day now--perhaps even tomorrow (Sunday).
Title: auto-keep previously-generated password
Post by: ajw on October 29, 2005, 09:01:08 PM
Cool!

Gee, I remember the days before kids - I had time to get things done too...   :)

- Al -
Title: auto-keep previously-generated password
Post by: LkonKbd on October 29, 2005, 09:41:09 PM
"Hey "Al,""

You can also use the 'Pre & Suf fix' feature as well.  Take half of your generated password 'Ctrl+C' and paste it in those two fields, in proper order of course.  Then you can change anythingy you like in your other boxes that effect the calculted password, as long as you do not change the password length.

Of course you can also put the full password in either field alone.  I prefer splitting it up so there is a confusion if someone does manage to get that far.