Passwords and Keys

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Introduction

It is not at all a good idea to use the same password on all the websites you have accounts in. If that one password get leaked somehow, then all your online accounts are at risk. So it is a good practice to have unique passwords for every online account. But when you have very many passwords, it becomes difficult to memorize and recall all of them when you need them. Usually, people write down their passwords somewhere, either on paper on on their mobile/desktop computer. But this is also risky because you can easily lose the piece of paper or the document on your computer or they can fall into the wrong hands. So what do you do then?

Password manager software offer a solution to this problem of safely storing your passwords. Password manager software can help securely store secret information like passwords and encryption keys. The Passwords and Keys app, also know as seahorse is a password manager for Linux.

Before You Use this App

The "Passwords and Keys" app works by saving your passwords locally on your desktop computer in a secure, encrypted storage called a 'keyring'. This approach is highly secure because all your passwords are stored locally on your computer and cannot be accessed by anyone over the internet. Moreover, you can 'lock' all your passwords in the app with a 'master password'. HOWEVER, the app has two weaknesses - 1) if you ever lose your computer, you will lose access to all your passwords and have to set them again, and 2) if you forget the master password, even you will not be able to access your passwords in the app.

Note that even if your computer is stolen, your passwords will remain safe since no one else can access the passwords without the master password.

The "Passwords and Keys" app is called an offline password manager because it stores all your passwords on your computer. There are also online password manager software services that you can use. Online password managers store your passwords on a server computer. The advantage of such software is you won't lose your passwords even if your computer is no longer available to you. HOWEVER, remember that when you use an online password manager, you are storing all your passwords on someone's else's server computer!

Basic information

ICT Competency	The "Passwords and Keys" app, also known as Seahorse, is a password manager and keyring management application. It is used for managing passwords, encryption keys, and security certificates (SSL/TLS) on your Linux desktop environment.
Educational application and relevance	No direct application. Teachers who register and create online accounts to access educational content can use this application to securely store their login passwords.
Version	Passwords and Keys (or) Seahorse 41
Other similar applications	KeypassXC, pass
Development and community help	Seahorse GNOME app page, Seahorse GNOME help page

Overview of features

Installation

Passwords and Keys app in the menu

For Ubuntu OS

The application is part of the Ubuntu custom distribution. Go to Accessories --> Passwords and Keys to open the application
In case you do not find it on your computer, you can install it through the terminal by following the steps below:
1. Open terminal by clicking "Applications --> System Tools --> Terminal" or through Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T
2. In the terminal window, type below command and press enter to start the installation by providing your machine password:
3. sudo apt-get install seahorse

Working with the application

In the following sections, you will learn to create a new keyring to store all your passwords in, to create a master password for the keyring, to add a password to the key ring, and to find a password in the password manager when you need it.

Creating a keyring

The application will be empty to begin with. On the left, you will see an entry called "Login". This is a keyring created by the system by default. Ignore this.

Create a keyring

On the top left corner of the app, click on the "+" icon.
Select the option "Password keyring"
A pop-up window with the title "Add password keyring" appears.

Enter a name for the keyring. For example, you can call it "Work" or "Personal". This keyring will be created as an encrypted file in your computer. Here, a keyring called "Work" has been created as an example.
Click on "Add" to create the keyring.

Set a master password

The keyring gets created and you will immediately be prompted to set a master password for the keyring.
Enter a master password and click "Continue". Use a password that is difficult to guess for others, but is easy for you to remember.
Your keyring will now be created. In this example, the keyring "Work" will get created and will appear below the default "Login" keyring.

You also have the option of not setting a master password for the keyring. You can leave the password field blank and click "Continue". If you do, your keyring will not have password protection. You will see a warning message on the screen.

Set your new keyring as the default keyring for all your passwords by right clicking on the keyring and selecting the "set as default" option.
See also the option "Change password" in the screenshot. If you ever want to change your master password for the keyring, use this option.
The "lock" option will lock your keyring. Any passwords stored in the keyring will not be visible to you until you unlock the keyring with the master password.
Be careful with the "delete" option. Deleting a keyring will delete all passwords stored in the keyring. Deleted keyrings and passwords cannot be recovered.

Adding a password to the keyring

Add a new password

Click on the "+" icon on the top left of the application
Select the option "Password"
In the popup that appears,
- first, confirm the name of the keyring is the one you created above. In the example, it is "Work".
- In the "description" field, enter a suitable name for the online account or application for which you are storing the password. For example, it could be "My Google account" if you are storing your Google account's password.
- Enter the password in the "Password" field. The password will be masked as you type. To confirm you have entered your password correctly, click on the key icon next to the field which will unmask the password temporarily.
Then, click "add".
You will now see an entry for this password in the application, inside the new keyring you created.
Follow the above steps to add all your passwords into the keyring.

Note that you did not actually mention your login id (or username) anywhere. If your login id is the same as your e-mail id or a shorter version of your name, you will usually remember it, and therefore can avoid typing it in. It is a simple security measure to add as minimal information as necessary into the password manager. However, if your login id is more complicated and hard to memorize, like say 'K14227420', then add this information to the description field. Example. "My office login (K14227420)".

Finding and using a saved password

Once you have added some passwords to the keyring, you can see the list of passwords when you select the keyring in the left pane. In the image below, the keyring "Work" has been selected. It has two passwords saved in it. The names you see is the description field you filled for each of the passwords.

If you need to login to the online account called "My Nextcloud" (image above), first go to the login page for the website/application on the internet. You will see the username and password fields. To get the password for this website, first select the entry "My Nextcloud" by clicking on it. If you have saved a lot of passwords in the keyring, you can find the password you want by typing words from the description text you provided for the password. To search, press "Ctrl-F" on the keyboard or select the 'search' icon (magnifying glass), and type a few letters from the description. The app will filter the matching passwords from your list of passwords as you type.

To copy the password, select the entry (see image below), right click the mouse on it (or using the keyboard, press both "Fn key + ctrl"), and select the option "Copy secret". The password is now copied to your clipboard. Now you can paste the password in your online account's login page with "Ctrl-V" on the keyboard or right click in the password field --> paste.

Changing a saved password or its description

If you change your online account's password anytime, remember to update it in your password manager so you can use it later on without having to remember the new password!

To change already saved password in the password manager, find the password entry in the application as in the previous section, then right click on it and select "Properties". The details of the password will display in a popup. See below.

To change the password,

Click on the key icon next to the password field. The password will be visible now.
Clear the password text
Add the new password by typing/pasting in the field
Close the popup by clicking on the 'X' in the top right corner.
The app will ask if you want to save the change or cancel the change. Choose 'save' (or 'cancel' if you change your mind).

Note that there is no separate 'Save' option to save the change you make in the popup.

To change the description, follow the same steps, except that you will change the field called 'Description'.

To delete a password, you can either right click on the password entry and select 'Delete' or click on the 'Delete Password' button in red as shown above. The app will ask you to confirm your selection.

Ideas for resource creation

This is very useful for creating simple video/screenshot resources by adding narration to a process being done using an application. For example, you can run a simulation on your screen or an image slide show and add your narration to it as the application runs.
You can also use an existing video and dub it in another language
Please make sure that in both (1) and (2) the original visual resource/ video is licensed for reuse with modification.

References