logoalt Hacker News

no-name-hereyesterday at 5:00 PM7 repliesview on HN

> back those passkeys up to paper

Is writing down passwords something people do? I have countless passwords saved over >20 years and I don’t think I’ve ever recorded one to paper. I even checked a couple of popular password management solutions and they don’t seem to have “print” functionality.


Replies

syntheticnatureyesterday at 5:12 PM

Yes, this is extremely common, both as a continuity means and/or as a localized password manager. Know someone who uses a Rolodex for hers, which is funny and yet it works.

Doesn't work well in office environments, but at home the local threat model is largely fine with this.

Telaneoyesterday at 6:22 PM

Yes. Old people constantly do it, since they have no hope of remembering 15 passwords. Sometimes, they can barely remember 1 (one).

I've written down one: the master password for my Keepass database, along with instructions on how to get to and open that file. It's in a 'open if I'm no longer alive' envelope.

cwilluyesterday at 5:09 PM

It is absolutely a thing people do. Google even offers a convenient printout as a way to provide account recovery.

malfistyesterday at 5:18 PM

The passphrase to my bitwarden database is in my will. And a bitlocker decryption key is right beside it.

JohnFenyesterday at 7:01 PM

> Is writing down passwords something people do?

Yes, it's pretty common.

teklayesterday at 5:28 PM

It is what the vast majority of people do.

show 1 reply