eli5 Password manager apps

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I‘d not consider myself technologically unsavvy but I can‘t really understand how a password managing app on my phone can keep my passwords safe?
By that I don‘t mean what kind of encryption technology is used, I just can‘t believe that I really CAN trust a company not giving/selling all my passwords (or losing them to a hack).
That‘s also the reason why I never use apples pw manager for example.

Am I overly cautious? Is it safe to store my passwords in a pw manager app?

Maybe someone that understands the technology/encryption behind such apps can help me

In: Technology

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Many comments are getting it wrong:
– Software can be secure and you can be certain of what an app does if the code is open source and the build is verifiable (which means, you can verify that the app was built from the same source that was published)
– Good password managers (Bitwarden, for example) encrypt your passwords BEFORE they leave your device, by deriving the encryption key from your “Master password”. So, your passwords cannot be sold, because the company’s servers only have undecryptable data.

It is safe to store your passwords in a password manager, as long as that password manager is open-source, verifiable and audited and is not LastPass (you can look-up why).

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