TIL my password manager was storing passwords in plain text

I was at a coffee shop downtown about 2 weeks ago and this guy next to me was helping a friend set up a new laptop. He casually said, "if your password manager can show you your passwords without asking for your master password again, it's not really secure." That stuck with me so I checked mine and sure enough, every password was visible in plain text inside the app. I switched to Bitwarden that same night. Has anyone else switched tools after realizing their old one wasn't as safe as they thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

harris.aaron16d ago

The thing is, plain text passwords are everywhere in life, not just in apps. People use the same password for everything because it's easier, even when they know better. It's the same reason people don't check their privacy settings on social media until something bad happens. Most security tools are designed to be convenient first and secure second, so if it's easy to see your passwords, that's usually a red flag. I switched from LastPass to KeePass a few years back for the same reason, and it made me realize how many other habits I had that weren't as safe as I thought. It's wild how much we rely on convenience over actual protection until we get burned once.

anna_craig16d ago

i switched from lastpass to bitwarden last year after they had that big breach. the fact that bitwarden is open source and gets audited regularly made me feel way better about it.