In November 2022, the password manager service LastPass disclosed a breach in which hackers stole password vaults containing both encrypted and plaintext data for more than 25 million users. Since then, a steady trickle of six-figure cryptocurrency heists targeting security-conscious people throughout the tech industry has led some security experts to conclude that crooks likely have succeeded at cracking open some of the stolen LastPass vaults.
I was a lastpass user until ~2020 when i moved to KeePass and deleted my account. However, my master passphrase was close to 20 characters long. An 8 character password is laughable. I have my password manager generate 32 character or 64 character passwords with ~150 bits of entropy or 300 bits of entropy. My master password has also grown in length to the mid 20s area.
Yep, +1 for KeePass. I didn’t even know much about open source software back when I started using it, I was just suspicious of the idea of having a vault containing all my passwords sitting online where criminals would know where to find it.
What consistently annoys me is how many sites still won’t let me use passwords longer than 16 characters, or still won’t let me use non-alphanumeric characters (or worse, both!) At least they’re not finance-related, I suppose.
KeePass has its vulnerabilities too. The good thing though is that it is not networked so one has to break into your device or your backups to even start an attack.
Exactly. Every password manager has its vulnerabilities, so there’s always a trade-off between different security measures. The lack of networking is KeePass’s big draw.
The big issue I have is syncing. Do you happen to know if there are any differencing tools keepass.
I like to have only various subsets of my data on some devices and accounts. So way to partition, difference, and merge would be nice.
You’d need to have different files for different subsets, then, and use some sort of cloud storage for sync
No need for cloud storage, just use a peer to peer data replication product like Syncthing. Fully encrypted, data is only stored on the end devices, entirely controlled by the user.
I will be happy when KeePass can store and use passkeys so public/private key cryptography to the rescue.
I was similarly not particularly concerned by this breach; my iterations value was set much higher a long time ago, my master password was bordering on insane; as in greater than 16 characters, Mixed Case, includes symbols, has XKCD-Style word patterns and contained non-english/unexpected words/patterns.
I also had migrated away from lastpass and prior to the breach had Deleted my account.
I switched my family away from LastPass earlier this year and went through the trouble of auditing/changing every single password.
Man, I can’t believe I have to change the password of my important accounts. I had >700 entries in my lastpass account. A good chunk of them are probably accounts from dead websites but I’ll still have to wade through them.
Since then, a steady trickle of six-figure cryptocurrency heists targeting security-conscious people throughout the tech industry
Seems they only targeted potentially accounts that might’ve contained some MONEY (Cryptocurrency)
Then on Aug. 28, Monahan said she’d concluded that the common thread among nearly every victim was that they’d previously used LastPass to store their “seed phrase,” the private key needed to unlock access to their cryptocurrency investments.
It seems that in particular “Secure Notes” containing crypto seed phrases seem to have been compromised. It’s pretty silly to have not migrated your old crypto wallets by now though.
In a December 2022 blog post, Palant explained that the crackability of the LastPass master passwords depends largely on two things: The complexity of the master password, and the default settings for LastPass users, which appear to have varied quite a bit based on when those users began patronizing the service.
…If you have/had an older account with potentially a very weak Master Password… Your password would be considered Weak if it was Less than 12 characters & did not not contain Uppercase, Lowercase and Symbols & was not an XKCD style password that *isn’t * “Correct Horse Battery Staple” or some other combination of those exact four words…
But Palant said while LastPass indeed improved its master password defaults in 2018, it did not force all existing customers who had master passwords of lesser lengths to pick new credentials that would satisfy the 12-character minimum.
…Older than 2018…
Palant noted last year that for many older LastPass users, the initial default setting for iterations was anywhere from “1” to “500.” By 2013, new LastPass customers were given 5,000 iterations by default. In February 2018, LastPass changed the default to 100,100 iterations. And very recently, it upped that again to 600,000.
…Or worse yet, 2013…and you didn’t change the iterations setting(s), which most people probably did not.
Meanwhile, websites in my country don’t allow symbols for fear of code injection attacks, and the allowed max length is 8 characters. You read it right. Fucking hell, it’s Japan…
Do they allow using unicode characters though? Eight characters of kanji might a pretty strong password.
No, no unicode on 99.9% of websites.
By 2013, new LastPass customers were given 5,000 iterations by default
Uh, I made my lastpass account in 2012. If the iterations setting on 2013 was 5000, then the iterations setting the older accounts are probably even worse. I may or may not upgrade the iteration, I can’t remember at all.
I did not even know about the lastpass breach. I had one years ago and the vault should have been gone but im always paranoid about that.
Wow, crypto bros who rely on open source, rely on a closed source password manager. Did they not realize where the security and development of crypto stuff came from?
I feared things can go bad since LogMeIn acquired Lastpass. However, I didn’t imagine things go actually THIS bad.
