One thing that is suggested every time someone talks about password security is to use a separate password for every website they visit. While I do make an effort to make my passwords more secure, I just felt that there were too many things to worry about in order to make something like that work. First thing being remembering all of the passwords. There are software packages, 1Password for Mac and RoboForm for Windows, that will remember them and even fill out the log in forms for you. Both of these are great but a bit more than I was looking for. If for some reason I lost the database containing all the passwords I would have a hard time resetting each one. Secondly, I needed a solution that would allow me to log into any of my site accounts on another computer that did not have the program installed and all of my passwords stored on it.

I just recently came across what I now use to implement this very policy. SuperGenPass is a bookmarklet that you install in your browser just like an ordinary bookmark. It allows you to remember just one password, which is used to generate unique, complex passwords for the web sites you visit. It generates them every time so it never stores them on the hard drive and your master password is never transmitted so you don’t have to worry about it getting out. I like the fact that if I use another computer it takes literally 20 seconds to add it regardless of that systems browser or operating system. I can also leave it on that computer without worrying about my accounts. Check out SuperGenPass.com. There home page explains it quite well.

UPDATE 08/02/08: As pointed out in the comments below by David A Teare, Co-author of 1Password, 1Password is compatible with SuperGenPass which means you can use SuperGenPass to log into accounts created by 1Password. Thanks David.

UPDATE 08/05/08: I have looked into it and it turns out that 1Password’s digest password generator is NOT compatible with SuperGenPass. It is compatible with the older GenPass.

SuperGenPass.com/genpass/:

“GenPass is no longer being updated. It is still functional and will remain available on this page, but new users should use SuperGenPass, an updated version of this tool that incorporates new advanced features and a better user interface. Please also note that GenPass is not compatible with SuperGenPass—given the same input, they generate different passwords.”

So it is not possible to use 1Password with SuperGenPass without using SGP to generate the passwords then store them. The only reasons for doing this would be to use one less step on your home computer when logging into a site or to use other 1Password features like the digital wallet.