secretive VS pass-import

Secretive might be what you're looking for: https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive

Good find! I was always curious how this worked.

I'm a big fan of tools like secretive[1] that can help solve this problem by using biometrics to shift the UX/security trade-off and thus make it feasible to always require some kind of authentication to sign a token with a key.

I'm not aware of any tools that do the same for Linux, and a quick Google search doesn't turn up much[2]. It does look like you can at least get a notification[3], though.

This could provide another layer of protection on the user's endpoint device in addition the network monitoring called out in the article. Defense in depth, and all that.

[1] https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive

[2] https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/705144/unlock-an-ss...

[3] https://www.insecure.ws/2013/09/25/ssh-agent-notification.ht...

https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive

> Secretive is an app for storing and managing SSH keys in the Secure Enclave

Secretive, which replaces painfully managing SSH keys from the command line / editor. Getting a Touch ID prompt is so much better, though migrating computers will suck.

consider using a higher-security setup. Secretive is an SSH agent for MacOS that stores keys within the host's secure enclave, where they can't be copied off, and can optionally require touchid validation before the key is used. This way, if you forward it the key to an compromised host and an attacker tries to use them, it'll still require a fingerprint (but, balance it with the fact that Secretive doesn't have nearly as many eyeballs checking it, yet!). Likewise, yubikeys can be setup to store SSH keys inside them and require touch to use.

You can store them in the Secure Enclave on OSX and require TouchID to use the key for signing.

See: https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive

Not exactly connected but the same crowd interested in this topic may also be interested in this tool to store SSH private keys in the Secure Enclave, kind of like what can be done with a YubiKey:

https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive

I've been looking for something like this for 3-4 years but only found it six months ago (in an HN thread). I use separate keys for every use case, and now know every time a key is used for any purpose, whether it's connecting to source control or my text editor is connecting to a remote VM.

Only thing I haven't figured out is how to do git signatures with these sorts of keys, but I haven't debugged it at all.

On Macs, Secretive [0] is great. It creates keys in the secret enclave, from where they can't be read, only used for signing requests. TouchID authorisation is optional but it's so quick and easy that I keep it on for all keys.

It can also use Smart Cards (Yubikeys are called out by name in the readme).

A forwarded agent will have the same level of security, meaning that if the forwarded agent needs to use a key in Secretive, it will have to be authorised locally - and even if TouchID is disabled, you are notified if a key is used.

[0] https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive/

> I always tell these people to just sign up for a password manager and they always resist and say no. I must be missing something obvious.

Maybe they don't want to be relying on a random third-party for all their passwords?

Rather than getting them to sign up for a password manager, what about getting them to install a password manager? I use https://www.passwordstore.org/ - it encrypts your passwords with GPG, and shares the storage via a Git repository for synchronisation between different machines.

That way you can delegate the password handling to another program, e.g. a password manager like pass(1) (https://www.passwordstore.org/) or some interactive graphical prompt.

I want to move to something compatible with https://www.passwordstore.org/ - an open standard for keeping your passwords in a folder encrypted with OpenPGP.

The problem is that I'm nervous to give an unknown Android app and browser plugin total control of my passwords and access to my github account when I don't have time to review it's code properly. I have a bit more trust ing the command line tools, but I'd like to be sure that more people are looking at the code before I trust my life to it.

> Create a system or pattern based on url or brand and mentally hash it into a password.

Doesn't sound very secure. Also when you realize that you anyway have to trust cryptography, I believe it starts making a lot of sense to have an actual cryptographic key and encrypt it with one good random password you learn by heart.

I use pass https://www.passwordstore.org/, which encrypts my passwords with my GPG key, which comes from my Yubikey, which I unlock with a password. That means that I only need to remember one password, and it feels a lot more secure than your pattern based on url or brand.

i use pass and keep my database on a local git repo. it encrypts your passwords with gpg and is a really simple command line program

If you want portability and simplicity, there's a project called simply pass that uses standard *nix utilities (and git, I believe) to manage passwords from CLI.

0. Pass is just text files encrypted with gpg. I needed just one password on one work computer, where I had my gpg key, but not all my passwords. Decrypted the file and that was it.

1. There are plugins and web clients: https://www.passwordstore.org/#extensions

I've been incredibly happy with https://www.passwordstore.org/ for years. The data store is a file hierarchy, with the files themselves encrypted with GPG. Sync is via git. TOTP support with a plugin.