Why are password managers considered good security practice when they provide a single entry for an attacker to get all of your credentials?

Question

Why are password managers considered good security practice when they provide a single entry for an attacker to get all of your credentials?

In: Technology

Answer 1

It enables you to have a different password for every single login, and not care how complicated or long those passwords are. Those online logins are _far_ more likely to be attacked than something running on your machine (the password manager) so you’re already winning.

That’s not to say the password manager is defenceless in the first place, though. In the case of online ones like 1Password, they actually have good protections in place to ensure it’s really you logging in, like a long complicated “key” (just a second password, really).

100% offline managers are obviously less prone to attack though, and come with offline secondary keys too. Check out KeePassXC, for example.