Password managers are not without security flaws, as seen in a recent high-profile breach. The database storing all the user's passwords is a very attractive target for hackers. Spectre is a new password manager that aims to solve this problem by using a unique password generation and management approach.

It sounds like a cool concept, but I can’t see anyone migrating to this service since there is no logical way to import your current passwords.

Am I missing something?

  • Pisck
    1·
    2 years ago

    If I understand this correctly, the system can challenge and confirm the master password without requiring any more stored locally than an OS would. At that point, password “retrieval” is really algorithmic output.

    The strength in offline usage alone makes this brilliant for some use-cases, but the inflexibility makes this approach more attractive as an option than a requirement.

    Examples

    • There are systems for which I need passwords that I can manually enter.

    • I need to be able to manage credentials that I can’t set.

    • Some systems limit what special characters can be used in passwords (whether they’re being asinine or want to push passphrases), while others have complexity requirements to include special characters.