FOSSwire

Jacob took a look at standalone GTK-based password remembering tool GPass recently, and if you're not on KDE that is a very useful tool.

KDE users however have a built in architecture called KWallet, which is designed to securely store passwords and other sensitive information but also includes integration with KDE (so for example you can have passwords auto-filled, pulled direct from your encrypted, secure KDE wallet).

In fact, you might already be using the KDE wallet. If you use Kopete for IM and have chosen to save your passwords, for example, you are. If we extend the Kopete example for a moment, the first time you choose to save a password in Kopete, you will be asked to set a password for your default KDE wallet.

It is this password that is your 'master password' and is used to encrypt all of the information stored inside the wallet.

As I've mentioned, access to the KDE wallet system is provided by KDE and thus is available to many different KDE applications. Another example is accessing remote servers in Konqueror. Login to an FTP, SFTP, or similar server and you'll be allowed to save the password or passphrase in your KDE wallet too.

So where does all this stuff go? And where do you, the user, go if you want to retrieve any of it? The quick answer KDE Wallet Manager application. You can launch it by finding it in the K menu, or press Alt-F2, type kwalletmanager and press Enter.

You might have to double-click the small wallet icon in the system tray () to bring up this main window (above) which lists your wallets. You can have multiple wallets, each protected by a different master password if you like to keep things separated.

Double-click a wallet to open it up and see its contents. Unfortunately at the time of writing the interface for viewing and editing the saved information inside KDE Wallet Manager isn't all that intuitive and involves knowing a certain amount about the underlying KDE Wallet technology.

Still, the KDE Wallet architecture is a very useful tool and its strong support amongst KDE applications makes it a great way to securely store passwords and have them automatically remembered while retaining master password security.

Okay, so you'll probably still forget them. But with GPass, you can find them again in an instant.

GPass is a quick tool that lets you type up a list of passwords, locked away with a master password. It is easy enough to use: Just click the Add button, and give it a name and a password. If you want, you can set the password to expire so that GPass will tell you when you need to change it again.

And for indecisive folks, or those who like to memorize random characters, it includes a password generator.

The only thing missing, strangely, is a way to print your passwords for a stow-away hard copy. But, for what it does, it does good. Just remember to copy the .gpass folder if you erase your hard drive if you don't want to re-enter them all again.

(You'll probably find this tool listed as "Password Manager" in your distribution's package manager.)

Whether your ISP is filtering content or you just want some privacy on the internet, there is always a quick solution, and it is surprisingly easy to set up.

Basically, all you need to do is SSH to any Shell account that you have access to (it can even be your own PC from another location) with the option -D. For example:

ssh -D 7070 user@site.com

will connect to site.com as user, and create a proxy server at port 7070 (this does not need to be set up on the shell).

Then all you have to do is configure your browser/IM/torrent clients to use "localhost" as a SOCKS v5 server. For Firefox, this is in Edit > Preferences (or Tools > Options on Windows). Click the Advanced tab, and then the Network tab under it. Then open Settings, and select Manual Proxy Configuration. Type localhost ONLY in the SOCKS Host box, and type the same port number you used above.

That's it! To turn the proxy off, close your SSH session and change your browser settings back.

Just yet another use for SSH.

Note: Reader Don McArthur has tipped us off that you might need to make some changes to your SSH server before this will work. If it doesn't, add these lines to /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

AllowTcpForwarding yes
GatewayPorts yes
TCPKeepAlive yes

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