Passwords Cheatsheet

[Manel Rodero]

Hello,

I'm trying to glue together some ideas to create a passwords cheatsheet for my job (where I have more than 100 different servers with a different password each).

Until now I create this cheatsheet like this:

• I have a word template with the cheatsheet (basically a table with the correct size for printing)
• I use an external password generator to generate 100 different passwords with my required complexity
• I copy&paste every password in the correct row,column in the word template -manually- :-(
• I print the sheet and cut it using scissors to fit it in my pocket

Now, I would like to use the power of AutoIt to do this work.

For the password generation, after some tries and errors, I will use the _GeneratePassword of SmOke_N (Thanks!).

I have the following idea: I will have an INI file with the machine names and starting positions in the table (because I would like UNIX machines starting at position 1, Windows at position 55, etc.)

Something like this?

[General]
UNIX=1
WINDOWS=100
VMS=150
OTHER=200

[UNIX]
Machine1=
Machine2=
Machine3=

[WINDOWS]
Machine1=
Machine2=
Machine3=

[VMS]
Machine1=

[OTHER]
Machine1=
Machine2=
Machine3=

Then, I need to write an script to read the INI file, calculate the cell position for every machine, generate a password (probably updating the ini with it so you can reuse the ini instead of generating new ones) and then update the word template with the password in the correct place.

The word template is a Word document with a table of 200 cells; every cell has the following content $Px (where x is the number of the cell). So the cell 150 has $P150 as its content. In this manner it is easy to replace this content with the password of the machine in the 150th position.

I need to say that I will generate two cheatsheet. One with the passwords. And another with the machine names. The first one goes to my pocket. The second one in my desk ;-) When I need to login to a machine I only need to know its position and type the password. Is something like the code password cards for online banks.

For replacing text in the word file (I'm using this format because in this manner I can have the correct table size for printing and folding the cheatsheet) I would like to do something like the replace function that VBS has:

' http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/feb06/hey0201.mspx

Const wdReplaceAll  = 2

Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
objWord.Visible = True

'MsgBox objWord.Options.DefaultFilePath(wdStartupPath)

Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open("e:\tmp\scr\plantilla.doc")
Set objSelection = objWord.Selection

objSelection.Find.Text = "$P150"
objSelection.Find.Forward = TRUE
objSelection.Find.MatchWholeWord = TRUE

objSelection.Find.Replacement.Text = "Fabrikam"
'objSelection.Find.Replacement.Font.Bold = True
objSelection.Find.Execute ,,,,,,,,,,wdReplaceAll
'objWord.Quit

After thinking a lot about how to do this, I don't have have any tips about how to implement the INI format and its reading and position calculation. And I don't know at all how to do the word replacement.

Any ideas would be very appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Manel Rodero

[Nuffilein805]

why don't you do it in excel using the excelcom-udf?

there you can adress every single cell and set its value

if you only use a table in your word-document this might be an alternative

[CyberSlug]

[*]... and cut it using scissors to fit it in my pocket

I don't think AutoIt can help with that part

Seriously, Excel is probably the best way to go. In fact, you could generate a tab-delimted table and paste it into Excel pretty easily....

$text = ""

For $i = 1 to 10
    $text = $text & "machine" & $i & @TAB & GenPassword() & @CRLF
Next

ClipPut($text)
MsgBox(4096,"Please paste...", ClipGet())

; For example only
Func GenPassword()
    Local $t = "", $k
    For $k = 8 to 12
        $t = $t & Chr( Random(Asc('a'),Asc('z'),1) )
    Next
    Return $t
EndFunc

[=sinister=]

This MIGHT help, a little.

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...pic=22563&st=30

It uses array's and it needs the latest beta version.

**edit**

credits to Valuater

Edited March 17, 2006 by =sinister=

[Confuzzled]

Could I ask a different question? Why do you have 100 passwords for different accounts across 100 servers? Couldn't you have one account synchronised and change the one password regularly?

Just wondering.

[Manel Rodero]

My sysadmin colleagues doesn't want to have a 1 password synchronized between machines because of security problems: how many times you synchronize? from where?

If the first question is "every week" or "every day", it will be a range of time where a hacker (and we have a lot of them because our environment is a computer science university ;-) has some time to try to get a password of a machine. Then it will know the password for all machines.

If the answer for the second question is "from a central machine", then this machine need to have access to every other machine (for changing the passwords). So it will be a target of the hackers.

Now, seriously, I need to replace the manual process of generating passwords and creating the cheatsheet that the sysadmins use now.

I use Word because in the word template file I will have only a table with the correct size in cm (or inches) for printing, cutting and folding.

Any more ideas?

[Uten]

I supose your students would just LOVE to get their hands on the cheat sheet you cary around in your pocket?

How about using a lockup safe? Create a application with a rotating password entry field and a ip//machinname entry field. When you provide the correct password (it rotates, so you have to remember the last one in the sequence) and the "machine id" then you get access to the password. Or maybe only a part of it leaving a common part to your memory?

Just my 2Cents

Edit:

This topic could be of interest: crypto udf

Also this page with small utilities could be of intrest: small crypto utilities.

Regards

Uten

Edited March 21, 2006 by Uten

[Gene]

I use Word because in the word template file I will have only a table with the correct size in cm (or inches) for printing, cutting and folding.

1- You should be able to create an appropriately sized output in Excel too.

2- I also agree with the person who suggested that some part(s) of the password should be committed to memory so that even if one of your admins lost his/her cheatsheet it wouldn't immediately be useful to a would be hacker.

Gene

[setirich]

I use KeePass for my password keeping, generating, etc. I also keep it sync's on my pda, since there's a windows 2003 mobile version that works really well too...

Both of these are free, but they are at diff sites:

http://keepass.sourceforge.net/ for the windows workstation version

http://doncho.net/kppc/index.php for the Win Mobile version

Life is complicated enough without having to build all my own utilities, especially when there are some out there that work so well....and I like the ability to drag the ID & PW to the respective boxes in the login window / screen on my desktop machine...like all the websites and things I need to log into...

Also, of interest to your issue, I believe you can print out the results, although that's not something I'd do, I understand your situation with multiple admin's needing access to this stuff...

Rich

Edited March 24, 2006 by setirich