pwsafe is a free opensource password manager which manages the passwords in an encrypted password database. pwsafe is a command line software but can interact with X11 selection & clipboard. pwsafe is compatible with CounterPane’s PasswordSafe Win32 program versions 2.x and 1.x. It’s unfortunate that there hasn’t been much of a development to this great tool since September 2005 but whats on hand is good enough to serve the purpose.
Install pwsafe
To install pwsafe on your openSUSE, click on one of the following 1-click installs based on your openSUSE versions.
openSUSE 11.1
openSUSE 11.0
openSUSE 10.3
This should download the YMP file and open YaST package manager. Click Next on the additional repositories window and Next on the window showing pwsafe software selection and finally next on the Installation proposal window. This should start the installation with adding the repositories, install the pwsafe package and the required dependencies. Click Finish when the installation successfully completes.
This should install pwsafe at /usr/bin/pwsafe
sai@opensuse11:~> which pwsafe
/usr/bin/pwsafe
Get Started
To get started, you need to create a Password Database. The default Password database is pwsafe.dat installed under your home directory as a hidden file (.pwsafe.dat). The backup Password Database file is .pwsafe.dat~
To create a Passwd database,
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe –createdb
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
Reenter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You will be prompted to enter a Passphrase for the database. Once you entered a passphrase and re-entered to confirm the passphrase, the database gets created.
To change passphrase of the Database:
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe –passwd
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
Enter new passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
Reenter new passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
Add an Entry to Database
To add an entry to the database use the “-a” option
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -a test
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
group [<none>]: test
username: testroot
password [return for random]:
password again:
notes: this is a test root account
List entries
To list entries use the “-l” option.
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -l
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
test.test – testroot
> this is a test root account
The above lists all the entries in the database. To list a specific entry use the -l option with the name of the entry as follows:
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -l test
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
test.test – testroot
> this is a test root account
To show the username, password or both, use the -u & -p options. By default, the output is directed to the clipboard. However, you can choose the send it to an output file or display onscreen.
To copy username to clipboard
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -u test
Going to copy login to X selection
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You are ready to paste the username for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
Press any key when done
Sending username for test.test to klipper@opensuse11 via PRIMARY
To copy Password to clipboard
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -u -p test
Going to copy login and password to X selection
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You are ready to paste the username for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
Press any key when done
Sending username for test.test to klipper@opensuse11 via PRIMARY
You are ready to paste the password for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
To copy both username and password to clipboard
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -up test
Going to copy login and password to X selection
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
You are ready to paste the username for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
Press any key when done
Sending username for test.test to klipper@opensuse11 via PRIMARY
You are ready to paste the password for test.test from PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD
To send username and password to STDOUT (screen)
sai@opensuse11:~> pwsafe -up -E test
Going to print login and password to stdout
WARNING: pwsafe unable to use secure ram (need to be setuid root)
Enter passphrase for /home/sai/.pwsafe.dat:
username for test.test: testroot
password for test.test: testadmn
For more options like, Delete databse, create a new database with a different name, edit entries etc use the man page
sai@opensuse11:~> man pwsafe
Click here to visit the project home.