Off Screen Keyboard
4.00/5 (3 votes)
A program to securely type and store passwords in unsafe environments
Introduction
I made this small program and use it to store my passwords. It uses encryption to store the passwords list in a constant 1 KB file filled with noise in the same principle as TrueCrypt (you can't tell if there is anything there until the right password is provided).
Background
When you're at work, or at an unsafe computer, and not sure if there's a key logger on the computer you're at, it's useful to have alternative ways to securely enter passwords.
The other thing I found myself needing was to keep track of passwords, so I can have many complex passwords without the risk of forgetting them.
Using the Program
Click on the improvised keyboard your password. Then you can drag and drop it to wherever you need it. This avoids key loggers and even message intercepting sniffers that would capture keys sent with the Windows program On Screen Keyboard. If the target program doesn't allow dragging and dropping the password, you can right-click and copy-paste it, but this leaves you vulnerable to clipboard monitors.
You can right-click the chars field to add or remove character lists from it.
You can write a password like "123" then right-click the password field and click Save. This will set it as the main password for your passwords list. I recommend a short password for easy access to your passwords list.
Now you can write anything, then right click > "Add Current" to save it to your list. The passwords are stored in the "stew.txt" file. Next time you open the program, just write "123" and when you right click your passwords will be available. They will be hidden and shown only by their id to prevent anyone near you from seeing them, but you can reveal them by selecting "Show".
The button to the right will show the current letter you're hovering over, and toggles the password between hidden and visible.
You can also middle-click the keyboard area to delete the last character, or the password area to delete the whole password.
Points of Interest
If you're lazy like me, you can also type anything in it, but this rather defeats the purpose. Rather than that, just set the main password to be 2-3 characters long so you can just click them really fast to get to your passwords list.
History
- 9th March, 2009: Released alpha version
- 12th March, 2009: Released beta version which fixed some bugs and improves memory handling and storage encryption of passwords