avendesora 0.6.1

An XKCD-style password generator.

Introduction

Avendesora is currently in alpha. Please report all bugs and suggestions to [e-mail]

Installation

Install with:

pip install --user avendesora

Upgrading

Avendesora is a password generator rather than a password vault. As a result, there is always a chance that something could change in the password generation algorithm that causes the generated passwords to change. Of course, the program is thoroughly tested to assure this does not happen, but there is still a small chance that something slips through. To assure that you are not affected by this, you should archive your passwords before you upgrade with:

avendesora archive  # Not implemented yet.

Then upgrade with:

pip install -U --user avendesora

Finally, run:

avendesora changed  # Not implemented yet

to confirm that none of your generated passwords have changed.

Install with:

pip install --user avendesora

Requirements

To use Avendesora, you will need GPG and you will need a GPG ID that is associated with a private key. That GPG ID could be in the form of an email address or an ID string that can be found using ‘gpg –list-keys’.

Initialization

To operate, Avendesora needs a collection of configuration and accounts files that are stored in ~/.config/avendesora. To create this directory and the initial versions of these files, run:

avendesora init -g <gpg_id>

For example:

avendesora init -g [e-mail]

or:

avendesora init -g 1B2AFA1C

If you would like to have more than one person access your passwords, you should give GPG IDs for everyone:

avendesora init -g [e-mail] -g [e-mail]

After initialization, there should be several files in ~/.config/avendesora. In particular, you should see at least an initial accounts files and a config file.

Configuration

The config file (~/.config/avendesora/config) allow you to personalize Avendesora to your needs. After initializing you account you should take the time to review the config file and adjust it to fit your needs. You should be very thoughtful in this initial configuration, because some decisions (or nondecision) you make can be very difficult to change later. The reason for this is that they may affect the passwords you generate, and if you change them you may change existing generated passwords. In particular, be careful with dictionary_file and default_passphase_separator. Changing these values when first initializing Avendesora is fine, but should not be done or done very carefully once you start creating accounts and secrets.

During an initial configuration is also a convenient time to determine which of your files should be encrypted with GPG. To assure that a file is encrypted, give it a GPG file suffix (.gpg or .asc). The appropriate settings to adjust are: archive_file, log_file, both of which are set in the config file, and the accounts files, which are found in ~/.config/avendesora/.accounts_files. For security reasons it is highly recommended that the archive file be encrypted, and any accounts file that contain sensitive accounts. If you change the suffix on an accounts file and you have not yet placed any accounts in that file, you can simply delete the existing file and then regenerate it using:

avendesora init -g <gpg_id>

Any files that already exist will not be touched, but any missing files will be recreated, and this time they will be encrypted or not based on the extensions you gave.

Accounts

Avendesora holds information about your accounts in accounts files. The list of current accounts files is contained in ~/.config/avendesora/.accounts_files. Each is a possibly encrypted Python file. All information known about a particular account is contained in the attributes of a class that is created for that account. For example:

class BigBank(Account):
    aliases = ['bb']
    username = 'gman33'
    email = '[e-mail]'
    url = 'https://bigbank.com/login'
    passcode = Password(length=12)
    verbal = Passphrase(length=2)
    pin = PIN()
    accounts = {
        'checking':   Hidden('MTIzNDU2Nzg='),
        'savings':    Hidden('MjM0NTY3ODk='),
        'creditcard': Hidden('MzQ1Njc4OTA='),
    }
    questions = [
        Question('What city were you born in?'),
        Question('What street did you grow up on?'),
        Question('What was your childhood nickname?'),
    ]
    customer_service = '1-866-229-6633'

Each attribute represents a piece of information that can be requested. For example, a summary of all information can be requested with:

> avendesora all bb
NAMES: bigbank, bb
ACCOUNTS:
    CHECKING: <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank accounts.checking'>
    CREDITCARD: <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank accounts.creditcard'>
    SAVINGS: <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank accounts.savings'>
CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1-866-229-6633
EMAIL: [e-mail]
PASSCODE: <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank passcode'>
PIN: <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank pin'>
QUESTIONS:
    0: What city were you born in? <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank questions.0'>
    1: What street did you grow up on? <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank questions.1'>
    2: What was your childhood nickname? <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank questions.2'>
URL: https://bigbank.com/login
USERNAME: gman33
VERBAL: <reveal with 'avendesora show bigbank verbal'>

The attributes have various levels of confidentiality. Simple strings are not considered sensitive. Those values provided by Python classes inherit the confidentiality of the class. Hidden() provides simple concealment. GPG() provides full encryption. And classes like Password(), Passphrase(), PIN() and Question generates secrets. Attributes that are considered sensitive are not shown in the above summary, but can be requested individually:

> avendesora show bb pin
PIN: 7784

Attributes can be simple scalars, such as PIN. They can be arrays, such as questions:

> avendesora show bigbank questions.1
QUESTIONS.1: contact insulator crumb

Or they can be dictionaries:

> avendesora show bb accounts.checking
ACCOUNTS.CHECKING (base64): 12345678

The passcode attribute is the default scalar attribute:

> avendesora show bb
PASSCODE: Nj3gpqHNfiie

The questions attribute is the default array attribute:

> avendesora show bb 0
QUESTIONS.0: muffin favorite boyfriend

Adding And Editing Accounts

You add new accounts using the add command:

> avendesora add [<template>]

The available templates can be found using:

> avendesora help add

You can add new templates or edit the existing templates by changing account_templates in ~/.config/avendesora/config.

The add command will open your editor (set this with the edit_template setting in the config file). If you are using default version of edit_template the template will be opened in Vim with the n key is mapped to take you to the next field. You can edit any part of the template you like, but at a minimum you need to edit the fields.

Once an account exists, you can edit it using:

> avendesora edit [<account>]

This opens the accounts file with your editor (set this with the edit_account setting in the config file). If you are using default version of edit_account, which uses VIM, it should take you directly to the account.