Feature request: Emergency kit password protected

TristanTrx
TristanTrx
Community Member

Hey guys

I’m wondering is there a possibility of the emergency kit being sent in a password encrypted pdf. Even better if it could be protected using the master password.

It would add another layer of security. If it is a possibility then it would also need a reminder to save a new copy of the emergency kit when a user changes their master password.

Just a thought

Comments

  • Catalin1P
    Catalin1P
    Community Member
    edited January 2018

    It would be a useful feature in certain situations. I like the idea and I would love to know what the developers of 1Password think about it.

    I will come up with a few scenarios where this is useful.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    Hey guys I’m wondering is there a possibility of the emergency kit being sent in a password encrypted pdf. Even better if it could be protected using the master password. It would add another layer of security. If it is a possibility then it would also need a reminder to save a new copy of the emergency kit when a user changes their master password. Just a thought

    @TristanTrx: It's an interesting idea. The big hurdle is that, in most cases, if you need your Emergency Kit, it's because you've lost/forgotten your Master Password or other credentials...and then you'd have to know something else to get to your Emergency Kit! :scream:

    It would be a useful feature in certain situations. I like the idea and I would love to know what the developers of 1Password think about it. I will come up with a few scenarios where this is useful.

    @Catalin1P: Indeed, it's certainly something we can consider. In the mean time, you can always create an encrypted disk image or something similar to store it. We do, however, recommend printing out the Emergency Kit to store securely someplace like a safe deposit box, for those true emergencies. Better safe than sorry! :dizzy:

  • @Catalin1P and @TristanTrx,

    Its an interesting idea for sure. You can actually do this now using Preview.app, open the PDF choose Export from the File menu, tick the Encrypt checkbox and it will prompt you for a password.

    Rudy

  • TristanTrx
    TristanTrx
    Community Member

    Hey @rudy

    I currently am doing this and have been for a while, hence the suggestion :)

    My thoughts are potentially there could be the ability to open 1Password with the file itself instead of having to type in the master password.

    This would be extremely useful as a extra guard against keylogging viruses.

    Just pickling your heads a little :)

  • TristanTrx
    TristanTrx
    Community Member

    Sorry @brenty missed you there!

    That answers your question also I think.

    If the encrypted file could unlock 1Password then the user would not need to remember another password. They could still change their password from inside 1Password and export a new encrypted file.

    It's an idea that needs a bit of mulling I think.

    Lots of Pros and Cons

    Just thought I would touch base with you guys and see what your thoughts were

  • Lars
    Lars
    1Password Alumni
    edited January 2018

    @TristanTrx - I like the idea, I'm just not sure how it could work. Any data that is encrypted cannot be read by human nor machine, meaning there would be no way for 1Password to "see" the Master Password contained within the encrypted Emergency Kit and use it without first decrypting the Emergency Kit. Something could probably be developed that would do what you're suggesting if the user's Master Password was typed or otherwise encoded into the Emergency Kit PDF and the Emergency Kit was decrypted first, but without decryption, it's just another blob of unreadable ciphertext. And if we created this function for a decrypted Emergency Kit to unlock 1Password, the user would just be substituting having to remember one password (that used to encrypt the Emergency Kit) for another (their Master Password).

    Your Master Password (and in 1password.com, the Secret Key) are what is used to derive the actual AES256 encryption key used to unlock your 1Password data. That can't be avoided or sidestepped. Even in iOS, where we allow Touch ID (and now, with the iPhone X, Face ID), those two Apple technologies do not (indeed cannot) replace the user entry of his/her Master Password. When a user enables Touch ID and Face ID on their device, what we do to allow it to work is store an obfuscated copy of the user's Master Password in the device's system keychain for the user-specified period (a day, two weeks, only after restart, etc), and then call the system process (Touch or Face ID), which accesses the system keychain via Apple's process, obtains that copy of the user's Master Password, and enters it behind the scenes to derive the AES256 key which unlocks the data. Users often think they're "unlocking 1Password with their finger," which they kind of are, but in reality the process is: using the device's Touch ID to obtain the user's Master Password from the system keychain, which is what really unlocks their data. The same thing applies here -- without a way to obtain the users' Master Password and thereby derive the encryption key, there's no way to unlock 1Password.

    We'll certainly give it further thought, and I am not the most cryptographically sophisticated person here at AgileBits, but unless I'm missing some way this could be done, it's not really possible in the way you suggest -- at least, not without trading having to remember one password for another. Thanks very much for the suggestion, however, this was an interesting idea!

This discussion has been closed.