garykamen / blog

10-26-08

Storing Your Passwords Securely

When it comes to storing multiple passwords, most people either save them to a file on their local computer, or simply use pen and paper. While both methods work, they can easily lead to your security being compromised.

My solution is not a simple one, but definitely worth the trouble. You’ll just need three things:

1) Any USB drive (as cheap as $5 at newegg.com)
2) KeePass Password Safe (a free Open-Source password manager)
3) TrueCrypt (a free Open-Source encryption tool)

Step 1
Download TrueCrypt from the link above and set it up on your local machine

 

Step 2
Plug in your USB drive and make sure it has been completely formatted

 

Step 3
Next, you’re going to encrypt your USB drive so that all data saved to it is secure. Open up TrueCrypt and click the “Create Volume” button. Make sure “Create a standard TrueCrypt volume” is selected and click “Next”

 

Step 4
Click “Select File” and browse to your USB drive and open it. Now you will need to create a new volume within your USB drive. Everything within this volume will be secure. Next to “File name”, create a name for you new volume and hit “Save”. Then click “Next”.

 

Step 5
Here you will need to select your encryption algorithm. Since I am by no means an encryption expert, I’ll leave it up to TrueCrypt to explain each one. Once you’ve made your selection, hit “Next”.

 

Step 6
Now you’ll need to determine how large to make your volume. If you were using this volume to store/backup files, you would want to designate as much space as is available. But since we’re only storing passwords, 10MB is more than enough. That way you’ll still have the rest of the USB drive to store other things (although not securely). Click “Next”.

 

Step 7
Set the password for this volume. Make sure it’s a very good one using the guidelines set by TrueCrypt. Click “Next”, and then click “Format”. Finally, click “Next” once the Volume Created screen appears. You can now click “Cancel” to close the window.

 

Step 8
Now that you’ve created the encrypted volume, you must now mount it in order to add/remove files within it. This step will need to be done each time you plug your USB drive back in. Click “Select File” and browse to your USB drive, open it and click on the volume you just created. Click “Mount”, enter your password, and click “OK”. You’ll find the drive mounted as a separate letter name within My Computer. Find and open it.

 

Step 9
Download the KeePass portable edition to your local machine and unpack it into your open volume. Double click “KeePass.exe” and follow the master password creation instructions.

 

Step 10
Add your passwords to KeePass. Once finished, close KeePass and click “Dismount” in TrueCrypt and safely remove your USB drive.

That’s all there is to it. If you happen to lose your USB drive, not only are your passwords encrypted by TrueCrypt, but also protected by KeePass’ built-in password. Comment with any questions or suggestions.