MyPasswordSafe Manual

Translations:

- English
- Française

# MyPasswordSafe

© 2004 Semantic GapTM Solutions

# Contents

- Introduction
- Changes
- Legal
  - Copyright and Trademark
  - License
- Installing
  - ...from Binaries
  - ...from Source
- Usage
  - Starting MyPasswordSafe
  - The Main Window
  - Managing passwords
  - Edit Password Dialog
  - Opening and saving safes
  - Preferences
- FAQ
- Contact
- Credits

# Introduction

MyPasswordSafe is a straight-forward, easy-to-use password manager that maintains compatibility with Password Safe files. MyPasswordSafe has the following features:

- Safes are encrypted when they are stored to disk.
- Passwords never have to be seen, because they are copied to the clipboard
- Random passwords can be generated.
- Window size, position, and column widths are remembered.
- Passwords remain encrypted until they need to be decrypted at the dialog and file levels.
- A safe can be made active so it will always be opened when MyPasswordSafe starts.
- Supports Unicode in the safes
- Languages supported: English and French

The download page is http://www.semanticgap.com/myps/release/, in case you want to skip the rest of this.

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# Changes

## February 4th, 2004

- May have fixed the endian detection by using endian.h
- Moved src/util.?pp to src/myutil.?pp

## January 23rd, 2004

- Changed the AboutDlg around some. It now displays the version and information about when and who compiled it.
- Added a few more compile-time config definitions
- Fixed a bug with m_safe getting set to NULL whenever the pass-phrase dialog's cancel button was clicked.
- File->SaveAs is now enabled when a safe is opened
- Thanks go out again to Emmanuael Adeline for translating the manual!
- A backup is made when a safe is saved.

## January 22nd, 2004

- Changed the way Safe::empty does the emptying because it wasn't emptying the correctly
- No longer crashes when no password is entered into the Pass-phrase dialog and the Ok button is clicked

## January 19th, 2004

- Fixed the multilined note display problem
- Created a release Makefile
- Added a PREFIX compile time option to the Makefile
- Locale files are searched for in PREFIX/share/MyPasswordSafe/locale
- Thanks to Emmanuel Adeline for the French translation

## January 18th, 2004

- Fixed a bug with EncryptedString segfaulting when it was created with an empty string
- More than just phoenetic characters are now allowed in a password's entry; Unicode is supported!
- Reviewed all and fixed most of the FIXMEs
- Serializers now get the default username, so MyPasswordSafe supports Password Safe's default user option

## January 12th, 2004

Just some minor updates. Thanks for all the positive responses I've been getting.

- Created EncryptedString
- Refactored the loading and saving code to use EncryptedString
- EncryptedString is now used every where except where the password needs to be decrypted.

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# Legal

## Copyright and Trademark

MyPasswordSafe and this manual are Copyright © 2004 Semantic Gap Solutions, and is covered by the same license as the software. Semantic Gap and the double spiral are trademarks of Nolan Eakins.

## License

Copyright © 2004, Semantic GapTM Solutions
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of Semantic GapTM Solutions nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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# Installing

If you're reading this then you're either warm or hot. MyPasswordSafe comes in two distributions: a binary distribution and the source distribution. MyPasswordSafe requires Qt 3 and Boost, so make sure you have those. Boost is only required to compile MyPasswordSafe, but Qt needs to be installed to run the binaries.

## ...From Binaries

The binary distribution is precompiled. It can be downloaded from MyPasswordSafe's download page. Once that's downloaded, just untar it:

    tar xvfz MyPasswordSafe-bin.tgz

That should create a directory with the MyPasswordSafe binary, this file, and some other documentation. Running "make install" inside the MyPasswordSafe directory will install everything under /usr/local. It should work in other locations, but the language files won't be found if they're not in /usr/local/share/MyPasswordSafe/locale. That should be all assuming it works. If it didn't keep reading.

## ...From Source

So you want to compile it for yourself. Make sure Qt 3 is installed, and download Boost. Boost doesn't need to be compiled, just untarred.Download the sources and then untar MyPasswordSafe:

    tar xvfz MyPasswordSafe.src.tgz

You can untar Boost into MyPasswordSafe's directory. The project file (MyPasswordSafe.pro) expects "boost-1.30.2" to be in the directory. If it's not, a simple link made from your boost directory will work. You can change the project file by hand if your boost path is different. The Makefile also contains a PREFIX variable which sets the location where MyPasswordSafe will install it and its associated files. Change it if /usr/local isn't where you want it to install itself. Finally you can run make:

    cd MyPasswordSafe
    make
    make install

Now if that was successful you can start using MyPasswordSafe. If not, send me an email describing your situation. If for any reason you want to uninstall MyPasswordSafe, the Makefile has an uninstall directive. Running "make uninstall" will remove the files it installed.

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# Usage

MyPasswordSafe is straight-forward to use. Nearly all of the commands can be accessed from the menu, toolbar, context menu, or by keyboard. Before we delve into actual usage, let's cover how MyPasswordSafe can be started.

## Starting MyPasswordSafe

Starting MyPasswordSafe is just like any other program, you just need to run it. If you copied the binary into your PATH, all you need to is type MyPasswordSafe. Otherwise you need to either change to the directory where the binary is or include that in the command line. Adding an icon to your favorite launcher may also be desired.

When MyPasswordSafe starts for the first time, an empty safe is created. As you'll learn later, MyPasswordSafe has a thing called the active safe. The active safe gets opened when MyPasswordSafe starts saving you from having to always find it over and over.

## The Main Window

The main window isn't to complex. There's a list box, tool-bar, and menu. The tool-bar and menu duplicate each other quite a bit. Most of the action happens in the list box.

The list box contains the passwords from the current safe. Double clicking on a password in the list box fetches the password for that item, and right clicking convienently pops up the edit menu next to the pointer. So what do those commands do?

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## Managing Passwords

The edit menu contains the commands used to manage passwords. Each command's name is descriptive of what it does. For example, Add Password really does add a new password. Delete Password deletes the password selected password. And Edit Password opens up a dialog to edit the selected password.

The last two commands may need some explanation. They are Fetch User and Fetch Password. Both copy information to the clipboard. One copies the user, and the other copies the password field.

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## Edit Password Dialog

Both Add Password and Edit Password make use of the same dialog to edit a password's data. Passwords have four fields of information: name, user, password, and notes. All but the password field is displayed in the main window. The dialog also has three buttons that affect the password field.

- Show: turns off the password masking making the password visible
- Fetch: copies the password to the clipboard
- Generate: fills in the password field with a random password

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## Opening and saving safes

Safes can be created, opened, and saved from the file menu. The commands work like any other application except when a pass-phrase is needed. MyPasswordSafe does support multiple file formats. Currently MyPasswordSafe only two file formats are supported, Password Safe safes and text files.

Password Safe is a similiar to MyPasswordSafe, but runs only on Windows. Files created by Password Safe can be opened by MyPasswordSafe and vice-versa. The files are encrypted using the Blowfish algorithm, and are presumed to be secure. Use dat for the extension.

Text files should NEVER be used. All information is stored unencrypted. If you find them useful, go ahead and use them.

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## Preferences

MyPasswordSafe isn't the most configurable, but it does have some options.

- Active safe: this is the safe that MyPasswordSafe opens when it starts up; this can also be set using the Make Active item in the File menu
- Default user name: this is the username used for new passwords
- Clear clipboard on exit?: if this is checked, the clipboard is cleared when MyPasswordSafe closes
- Generated password length: sets the length of the passwords generated by pressing the Generate button in the Edit Password dialog
- Number of guesses: this is the number of times MyPasswordSafe will attempt to get the correct pass-phrase from you before it gives up.

MyPasswordSafe also stores the position and size of the window as well as the column widths. These are set by changing them, and are not available in the Preferences dialog.

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# FAQ

## How secure is MyPasswordSafe?

It beats me. The safes should be secure unless the Blowfish algorithm gets cracked. It's when the program is running that I'm unsure of the security. I'm sure some pesky program could find your passwords in memory.

If you know anything about how to make this program bullet proof, send me an email or a patch.

## Where is the Windows version?

I really wish there was a Windows version, but I can't afford a Qt license. If you need a password manager for Windows, get Password Safe. Versions < 2 create files that MyPasswordSafe can load and save. [ Note to developers: if you have Qt for Windows, could you compile and package it for me? ]

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# Contact

Semantic GapTM Solutions can be contacted using the following:

- Web: http://www.semanticgap.com/
- Email: support@semanticgap.com
- Mail:
  Semantic Gap Solutions
  527 Park Dr.
  Greenwood, IN 46143
  USA

# Credits

Programming and design:
Nolan Eakins

Peter Palfrader contributed bug fixes for 64 bit cleanliness, and character encoding problems. He also reported some other bugs and issues.

Some of the file loading and saving code is from Password Safe.

And most of the icons came from KDE

The French translation was done by Emmanuel Adeline.