Re: Random order passwords

Hi David,

Thanks for writing.

Your first suggestion is already supported (without autotype) since release
3.15: Just right-click on an entry and select 'Display subset of password".
You can also add this to PasswordSafe's toolbar via View->Customize main
toolbar. I'll try to mention this prominently in the help file.

As to support for secondary questions, you can currently use the Notes field
for this information, but let me think about this a bit...

	Cheers,

		Rony

-----Original Message-----
From: David Earl [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 12:41 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Passwordsafe-users] Random order passwords

[Apologies if this has been said before, only just subscribed...]

I'm finding an increasing number of sites (especially finance related 
ones) where the authentication is some subset of the characters from the 
password, often in a random order. Sometimes you type into these (and in 
some cases it moves automatically tot he next field, and sometimes you 
have to tab or click to move on), sometimes select the digit from a pop 
up menu.

These are fiendish to use from Password Safe (not its fault, of course: 
unless you have it memorised, its hard from anywhere), and you have to 
reveal the password on the screen and count along it to get the 
character you want, which isn't ideal.

Secondly, most such sites want further authentication, either on the 
same screen or a subsequent one. Often the answer is in response to a 
randomly chose one of number of questions, so in a sense it is like the 
random digits - you need to be able to say which password depending on 
what the site is asking for.

It would be really nice if Password Safe supported this. Here's my 
suggestion of something which would be quick to work through to satisfy 
what the site is asking for...

Firstly, a variation on autotype, where it pops up a dialog into which 
you type e.g. "354<enter>" if the site is demanding the third fifth and 
fourth characters. The autotype pattern would also need to accommodate 
an option for selecting the character from a menu as well as typing it.

Secondly, maybe an "extended autotype" could offer the questions on a 
menu and supply the answers. Obviously the pattern would need to cover 
this too, and it needs the entry to store an arbitrary number of 
passwords along with identifying phrases (grouped, in the sense that the 
site will ask for only one password in any group, but wants one from 
each group).

So, for example, say the site asks for digits 3, 5 and 4 plus "which 
school did you first attend", you can click the "extended autotype" 
button, type
    354<tab><down arrow.../select off pop up with mouse><enter>
and it will enter the required info (down arrow is the standard k/b 
shortcut for selecting from the pop up and you do it until you see the 
question being asked; actually typing the first letter would work too if 
its a standard windows widget).

In summary:
- multiple passwords with user supplied identifiers, in groups
- extended autotype where you choose the combination of passwords (in an 
efficient way)
- autotype patterns to support these.

Thanks for listening.

David


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