Feature request: memorable word support

aljungberg

Many UK sites have the concept of a "memorable word" where they will only ask you for a few randomly selected letters at a time. The idea is, presumably, to make it more difficult for key loggers to capture the entire password in one sitting. Examples of sites using this are banks (NatWest and Lloyds for example) and bank verification pages (HSBC).

It would save me time every single day if 1Password knew how to auto-fill these fields.

My current process is very time consuming and involves opening the password page in 1Password and then manually looking up each character in a long random string which I have manually numbered and indexed. Then each has to be entered by selecting it from a drop down. It's precisely the kind of work where 1Password can really help and make things both more efficient and secure. When it's difficult to look up and enter this information, the temptation is to use a memorable word like "aaaaaa" or whatever. But if you pick a good random word (like you should) you have a 30 second delay every single time you log in (and these sites like to log you out often too).

So please consider adding support for this, I imagine this issue affects a large number of your current and future UK customers and it'll make a very nice feature bullet to sell more licenses in the future.

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1Password Version: 5.4
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OS X 10.10.5
Sync Type: Not Provided

Stephen_C

@aljungberg:

I suspect it's exceptionally difficult to program for detection of the sort of "random character" passwords you mention. However 1P 5.5 (currently undergoing beta testing) has a feature which makes it much easier to cope with that sort of thing. There's a new option for password fields like this:

If you choose large type the password is displayed in large type with characters numbered underneath. From personal experience here in the UK I can say it makes dealing with the sort of passwords you mention very much easier.

Stephen

hawkmoth

@aljungberg - Let me add that the large type option is available in the current official release too. You wouldn't need to use the beta to access it.

Megan

Hi @aljungberg,

Please let me know if Stephen and Hawkmoth's posts have answered your question. They're correct, it's a challenge for 1Password to fill in these random character fields, but the large type option now available in Mac should make this a lot simpler for you.

aljungberg

Since I already have the memorable letters written out and numbered (in a field I don't even have to 'reveal') I have already optimised the manual entry option as much as possible. The large type option (while interesting, thanks for letting me know!) is actually slightly slower since it involves more clicks. The time consuming bit is A. having to look it up by hand and B. having to fill it in one slow combo box/text input at a time. Exactly the kind of thing 1Password is the most suited to help with!

I think from a technical perspective a feature like this is easier than it sounds. In practice there will rarely, if ever, be single character input fields with labels like "1st", "3rd", "9th" which are not in fact memorable word questions. So the number of false positives (accidentally filling the wrong input) will be nearly nil.

@Megan thanks for checking on this. This is not a question but a feature request, so it hasn't been "answered". Something like "we'll put it on the list!" or "oh we hate this we'll never do this" would be good answers. :)

Megan

Hi @aljungberg,

Well, I'm glad to hear that you have a workaround that works for you. :)

This is not a question but a feature request, so it hasn't been "answered". Something like "we'll put it on the list!" or "oh we hate this we'll never do this" would be good answers.

The Large Type feature that we recently implemented is, essentially, our answer to this feature request, which is why I hoped that it would solve things for you.

While it might be possible to program 1Password to fill in the appropriate character into these fields, it's no easy task (and it does rely on these websites having the fields labelled consistently, which can be a battle in itself!) The real problem is that this type of 'security' measure is that it ends up being 'security theatre' rather than adding any actual security. One of the potential concerns is how those random characters are verified as correct: is your password stored in plaintext somewhere on the site's servers?

Now, I'm not a developer, and I'm not a security expert, so I'm not saying "never". But as a security-conscious company, we think it's better to invest our efforts in educating the world on the importance of password managers and strong and unique passwords, and do what we can to make security theatre like this unnecessary.

Absolute

I'd second a request for this function as I've tried the 'Large Type' option but it always seems to cover the section of the website I need to input the characters. As soon as you click back on the webpage, it closes the large type display.
Maybe a repositionable floating window showing the large type would be an ideal way round it.

Drew_AG

Hi @Mike of Oxford,

Thanks for your feedback/request! Although I can't make any promises, I'd be glad to forward your feedback to our developers.

For now, here's something that might help: When you need to fill those characters on the website, open 1Password mini / extension, bring up the item details for that Login item, and click the anchor button (or use the ⌘O keyboard shortcut) to open the item details in a separate window. Then bring up the Large Type view of the password. When I tried this, it stayed on the screen even when I clicked back on the web browser. When you're done, click on the large type password again to dismiss it.

If you have more questions or need anything else, please let us know. :)

Absolute

Thanks Drew, that does indeed work. You still need to move the browser sometimes to avoid the anchored large text obscuring the section to be completed, but this works for most of those pesky sites, especially the credit card sites that redirect to VISA secure etc.

Drew_AG

I'm glad that's helpful! The large type view is a relatively new feature in 1Password, and there's certainly some room for improvement there. I'm sure our awesome developers will make it even better in future releases! :)

Eeyore

I'm afraid I don't understand the comments above re: 'large type' as I cannot see any letter numbering under the codes. Also, personally, for me the solution to the problem is overkill. I don't mind counting letters manually and entering the code manually, surely it's forgetting these 'memorable words' for a particular account that is the problem. A much simpler solution to implement is simply I would have thought is to provide something like an 'additional info' text field. Would this be possible? Aside from anything else, some sites (like NatWest) are even more complicated and in this case has two separate codes that have to be entered, one in its entirety and the second where you have to enter just three randomly requested characters from a nine character code. Any thoughts?

danco

There is a Notes section for each login. You need to go to the login and then edit it. I keep some of my extra "memorable words" in there, and group the word into blocks of five so that it is easy to know the number.

Large Type should be easily reached as Stephen_C says, but I think it may only apply to the actual password, not to additional items.

Jacob

@Eeyore Danco is spot on here. I'd recommend using the Notes section for info like this. And as he mentions, Large Type is only available for passwords, not other fields. Hopefully that helps clear things up. :)

Eeyore

Thanks to both dancing and penderworth. Not sure how I missed that, but slightly odd that the Notes field only appears in the 'normal' non-edit view when it has some content.

Regarding the Large Type facility with passwords, I thought what was being said above was that when displayed in large type, the individual characters were numbered below. I certainly don't see this.

Eeyore

Apologies - auto correct at work again danco!!

Jacob

@Eeyore Hmm, you should definitely be seeing that. Could you give this blog post a quick read and let us know if you see the same things as shown in there?

littlebobbytables

Hi @Eeyore,

Just to clarify, when you select the large type option for a password field in 1Password for Mac, do you see something like this or does it look differently for you?

Eeyore

I'm only using 1Password on iPhone and iPad.. so that might explain it?

hawkmoth

@Eeyore - If you tap on a password in the iOS version, it will bring up a menu that includes the large type option. The resulting display is indeed large, but it doesn't number the characters like it does in the Mac version.

Like this:

Eeyore

Hawkmoth.. thanks for the info. As a newbie to 1Password I was not aware of the fact that the OS-X and iOS versions were so different. I believe that things are being further complicated by the fact that for some reason my iOS installs are simply not behaving anything like the manual suggests they should.. the subject of another forum post.

Drew_AG

I'm glad Hawkmoth was able to help explain that! There are indeed some differences between the Mac and iOS versions of 1Password, as you've noticed. I see that you've posted on our iOS forum and have received help from others there. Hopefully you're all set now, but if you have more questions or need anything else, just let us know. :)