[Discuss] KeePassX

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

On 07/23/2013 06:29 PM, Tom Metro wrote:
> Good idea, if 1. you have an old phone to dedicate to this, and 2. you 
> don't mind carrying around a phone that is otherwise useless. (I 
> suppose you might be able to make emergency calls on it.) 

I actually bought a new phone from geekbuying.com. Cost less than I paid 
for the Palm Pilot I had been using, being new it has a new battery*, 
etc. I can't find my model on their web site anymore, there only seem to 
be even fancier phones, selling for less.  And boy, are those phones 
cheaper than what is available in the USA.

* Looks like my battery has around a month of standby time, with so 
little running, and all the radios off. When I do top it off, I try to 
stop it at 90% charge, figuring I will get more battery life by never 
stressing the very top or very bottom of the capacity.  I hope to get 
years of use out of this before I have to figure out a replacement again.

Note, this is not what I would want as a full phone. For example, it 
doesn't have any of the closed-source Google apps: no maps or hangouts 
or store access. That's okay for my purposes, I figure it makes me even 
more secure.

> Not exactly high marks for convenience. 

I don't know how to get that high convenience and not have really scary 
endpoint security risks. If it is so easy for me to root my phone...and 
I download lots of cool free apps written by complete strangers...how to 
I know who is listening in when I enter my master password?  How do I 
know what app has figured out how to do key look ups while the database 
is decrypted?  Every damn app thinks it needs full internet access, and 
I go along and install them anyway--but only on my general purpose phone.

If I am going to put all my eggs in one basket it is reasonable to use a 
special basket that I treat with care.

-kb, the Kent who thinks all his retirement savings alone should be 
worth treating with damn special care, not to mention all the 
information needed to steal his identity and generally shut him down.