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diff --git a/www/text.causal.agency/017-unpasswords.7 b/www/text.causal.agency/017-unpasswords.7 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f9643f2f --- /dev/null +++ b/www/text.causal.agency/017-unpasswords.7 @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ +.Dd February 20, 2021 +.Dt UNPASSWORDS 7 +.Os "Causal Agency" +. +.Sh NAME +.Nm Unpasswords +.Nd password anti-management +. +.Sh DESCRIPTION +Right away I want to say +that I'm not trying to tell anyone +how to manage their online authentication. +This is just how I do it, +and I haven't seen anyone else write about it. +. +.Pp +I don't use a password manager. +It's not a type of software +I want to deal with. +For the small handful of sites +that I use regularly +and that actually matter, +I use strong passwords +(stored in my noggin) +and TOTP. +For everything else, +I simply do not know the password, +and neither does any software. +. +.Pp +I think I started doing this one time +when I had legitimately forgotten +the password to some old account. +I clicked on +.Dq forgot my password +and opened the email, +but I didn't want to +come up with a new password +I would just forget again. +Instead I set a random one +.Po +I usually use +.Ql openssl rand -base64 33 +for this +.Pc +and immediately used that to log in +while it was still in my clipboard. +Next time I wanted to log in, +I could use +.Dq forgot my password +again. +. +.Pp +Thinking about it, +I realized that any web authentication +with an email password reset flow +is only ever as strong as +the authentication for your email account. +So what is the point of having +all these passwords set on different sites? +They all answer to your email account, +and storing them in a password manager +seems to add another potential point of failure. +May as well have no other passwords at all, +or as close as possible. +.Po +Shout out to sites like Liberapay +and asciienema +which let me not set a password at all. +.Pc +. +.Pp +So I started doing that for any site +that I don't regularly log in to. +Going through the password reset flow +can be a bit slow, +but it doesn't need to be done often. +And I can do it from anywhere +I have access to my email, +which I feel is more easily reliable +than syncing password management databases. +It's quite stress-free. +. +.Pp +After doing this manually for years, +this week I finally got around to +writing some automation for it. +A while ago I had written +.Xr imbox 1 , +a tool to directly export mail +in mboxrd format from IMAP, +along with +.Xr git-fetch-email 1 , +a wrapper which offloads configuration to +.Xr git-config 1 . +It can match emails by +Subject, From, To and Cc. +This week I added a flag +to use IMAP IDLE +to wait for a matching message +if there isn't one already, +and a flag to move matching messages +(for example to Trash) +after exporting them. +. +.Pp +With those two new flags, +I started writing some shell scripts +to automate the password reset flow +using +.Xr curl 1 +to submit forms and +.Xr git-fetch-email 1 +with +.Xr sed 1 +to pull the reset tokens +from my inbox. +At the end of the script, +the random password it set +is copied to the clipboard +and the login page for the site is opened. +So now logging in is as simple +as running a command, +waiting for the login page to open, +and pasting. +. +.Pp +The script isn't sophisticated, +but I don't think it needs to be. +I've written functions +for a couple different sites already, +and they all work in mostly the same way. +Writing a new one is just a matter +of identifying the form URLs and fields +along with where the token is in the email. +I'm not going to turn this automation +into any kind of generally usable project, +because I don't want to have to +maintain functions for tonnes of different services. +If you're interested in this idea, +I encourage you to use my script as a template +and implement the functions for services you use. +. +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Bl -item -compact +.It +.Lk https://git.causal.agency/imbox +.It +.Lk https://causal.agency/bin/sup.html +.El +. +.Sh AUTHORS +.An june Aq Mt june@causal.agency |