Author Topic: After a reformat  (Read 6340 times)

treeshouse

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After a reformat
« on: June 18, 2005, 07:30:36 PM »
I am just recovering from a reformat of my computer.  With a totally new install of Windows, I also had to reinstall Firefox and all my extentions.  Will I stll be able to get to all my generated passwords if this happens again?  

 :huh:

Offline Eric H. Jung

  • grimholtz
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After a reformat
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2005, 12:34:17 AM »
Quote
I am just recovering from a reformat of my computer. With a totally new install of Windows, I also had to reinstall Firefox and all my extentions. Will I stll be able to get to all my generated passwords if this happens again?

Since the passwords are not stored on your hard drive, the answer is absolutely! So long as you remember your master password and the settings you've used (hash algorithm, l33t, etc.), you're safe.

There was an option in the File menu (Advanced Settings dialog) before 0.6 to export/import these settings to/from a file, but I had to disable it for 0.6. I'm aware it becomes more important to be able to "backup" these settings through an export feature now that you can define multiple sets of settings ("accounts"), so it will be reinstated shortly.

-Eric

treeshouse

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After a reformat
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2005, 08:29:16 AM »
Maybe this is a stupid question, but then where are the passwords stored if not on my hard drive?

Offline Eric H. Jung

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After a reformat
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2005, 03:01:07 PM »
That's not a stupid question. It's been asked a lot so it's in the faq :)

Quote
Where are the generated passwords stored?
Nowhere. The generated passwords are calculated on-the-fly as they are needed. The RAM used to store and calculate the generated passwords is proactively cleared to prevent passwords from being stored in a swap file/virtual memory/paging file.

Where is my master password stored?
Nowhere, unless you choose the option Store Master Password on disk and in memory (encrypted). If you choose this option, your master password is stored using 256-bit strong encryption in %ProfileDirectory%/passwordmaker.rdf. If you don't know where your profile directory is, look here. For further protection you can instruct your operating system to encrypt passwordmaker.rdf. Instructions on how to do this with Windows XP/2000 (requires an NTFS partition, not FAT) are here. Instructions for Mac OS/X Tiger are here.

By "calculated on-the fly", I mean that PasswordMaker uses a calculation (the hash algorithm, along with other settings) to derive or calculate a password -- the same one given the same URL and same master password -- each and every time the password is requested.

This is the reason you can use PasswordMaker Online to get the same passwords as the PasswordMaker Firefox/Mozilla extension. It's also the reason you can generate the same passwords if you're using different computers, both with PasswordMaker installed.

Does this help?

Regards,
Eric
« Last Edit: June 19, 2005, 03:04:07 PM by grimholtz »

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After a reformat
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2005, 03:01:07 PM »