Feature Request: 2Password !

AbdulElah

Hi,



i know the topic title may look crazy, but really we need the ability to choose two different passwords that each of them can open 1password's save



why ?



Well, if you're speaking only English or write only in English you won't feel the need of two passwords, but if you're using two different keyboard layouts you will.



for instance, in my case i'm writing in English & Arabic so i'm switching between them a lot, when i try to open my 1P safari extension i'll be writing in Arabic and its -of course- won't open, then i'll have to delete and switch to English and write my 14-character long password again to open my save. AND THIS HAPPENS ALOT !!



for example, if my 1password was " [color=#0000ff][b]myrequestisweird[/b][/color] " in arabic it would be " [color=#0000ff][b]وغقثضعثسفهسصثهقي[/b][/color] " and that two passwords would open my save <img src='http://forum.agilebits.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/emoticon-0160-dance.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='(dance)' />

jpgoldberg

Welcome to the forums, Abdul!



You raise a very good case for that feature. I myself have run into a similar problem with an English and Hungarian keyboard layout, but the problem that I've experienced isn't as dramatic as the situation of Arabic and English which use entirely different alphabets.



I can't promise that we will add the feature you require, but it is something to consider. We do have a substantial number of users who often use alphabets other than Roman. I would love to hear from other people as well in a similar situation to find out how they manage this issue.



There are Mac apps which will help you assign a particular keyboard layout to a particular application. (I haven't reviewed any, so I can't say with confidence how well or securely they work.) While that solution may work well for the 1Password application itself, it won't solve the problem for entering the master password in the browser extension.



I don't think that restricting your master password to digits and punctuation that are common between the two alphabets would be a good solution. First of all it would make your master password far harder to remember and far weaker. The other issue is that even though users of the Latin alphabet refer to our numerals as "arabic", they still are different characters in Unicode and visually.



(For those unfamiliar with the history, what English speakers call "Arabic numerals" are indeed, derived from the actual Arabic numerals, but the term is used for the fact that we write these things with place value system. That is that there is a "ones place", a "tens place" etc.)



I'm wondering if it would help if the text input for the master password in the extension wasn't centered. If the input followed the direction of writing system, then you should be able to see whether English or Arabic were in use by seeing whether the dots increase left to right or right to left. At least that way, you would be able to notice which keyboard was in use before you entered in the entire master password.



Again, I can't promise that as a feature, but do let me know whether something like that would help in your case.



Cheers,



-j

AbdulElah

Thanks J for this reply.



[quote]There are Mac apps which will help you assign a particular keyboard layout to a particular application. (I haven't reviewed any, so I can't say with confidence how well or securely they work.) While that solution may work well for the 1Password application itself, it won't solve the problem for entering the master password in the browser extension.[/quote]



i think most of us using the extension more often, so i think it won't help much,



[quote]I don't think that restricting your master password to digits and punctuation that are common between the two alphabets would be a good solution. First of all it would make your master password far harder to remember and far weaker. The other issue is that even though users of the Latin alphabet refer to our numerals as "arabic", they still are different characters in Unicode and visually.[/quote]



using only numbers won't help at all, Because English using Arabic numerals which is "123..," and Arabic using Arabic-indic numerals which is "١٢٣..." you can read about it in wikipedia.



[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals"][b]Arabic numerals[/b][/url]

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals"][b]Arabic-[/b][/url][b][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals"]Indic[/url][/b][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals"][b] numerals[/b][/url]



[quote]I'm wondering if it would help if the text input for the master password in the extension wasn't centered. If the input followed the direction of writing system, then you should be able to see whether English or Arabic were in use by seeing whether the dots increase left to right or right to left. At least that way, you would be able to notice which keyboard was in use before you entered in the entire master password.[/quote]





i think it won't help because 1Password.app isn't centered and if i write Arabic the dots won't go right to left, even in safari, on any site such as twitter or Facebook or this forum, if i write my password using Arabic the dots still starts from the left side, but if that happened with the extension it might help a little.



-AbdulElah

jpgoldberg

[quote name='AbdulElah' timestamp='1329500787' post='58302']

using only numbers won't help at all, Because English using Arabic numerals which is "123..," and Arabic using Arabic-indic numerals which is "١٢٣..." [/quote]

Exactly. I was aware of that. (And also of the Indic history as well). But thank you for the links.



[quote]

i think it won't help because 1Password.app isn't centered and if i write Arabic the dots won't go right to left,

[/quote]

Then that is a bug. But I'm not sure if it is a bug that we can do anything about. Password input fields are different than normal text input fields, and the technology may not appropriately reflect writing direction. I've just started looking at this, and it seems that few toolkits do the right(-to-left) thing for password entry.



I really wish I had some sort of solution for you. I don't foresee adding the feature that you need in the near future. It would add a great deal of complexity to part of the system that is very sensitive for security. But I'm not ruling this out either, particularly if we need to add some of that complexity for other reasons.



I'm really sorry that I don't have a better solution for you. I would suggest trying to find a master password that is strong, but relatively easy to type. I'm not sure if you have seen this already but here are some tips on developing a very secure master password.



[url="http://blog.agilebits.com/2011/06/21/toward-better-master-passwords/"]http://blog.agilebit...ster-passwords/[/url]



Cheers,



-j

AbdulElah

thanks J, i really appreciate your replies