Knox Pre-announcement

roustem

Agile Web Solutions has purchased the [url=http://agilewebsolutions.com/knox]Knox for Mac[/url] from [url=http://www.karppinen.fi/]Marko Karppinen & Co. LLC[/url].



We are using Knox internally for over 2 years and we are happy to continue its development and support.



The official announcement and press release will be available in the next few days.



For a very limited time, the Knox is sold at the [url=https://agilewebsolutions.com/store]special discounted price[/url].

thightower

Cool, I'm a Knox license holder. Thanks for the tidbit.

MikeT

Whoa, this is awesome news. I was hoping that Agile will get into file/folder encryption software type of development.



Can't wait to see the press release and roadmap for this. I would like to know what Agile will do before buying a license for it.

roustem

[quote name='MikhailT']Whoa, this is awesome news. I was hoping that Agile will get into file/folder encryption software type of development.



Can't wait to see the press release and roadmap for this. I would like to know what Agile will do before buying a license for it.[/QUOTE]



Thanks!



Knox is a mature product and it already has a rich feature set. We do not plan to make any major changes at the moment, at least not until we hear from our users. One feature that I need personally, is better support for Dropbox syncing (a lock to prevent multiple Macs from opening the same vault at the same time) and this is something that I hope to add in the future.

thightower

You got my vote on this one (sync lock), I am the only one using my knox volumes on DB but this could prevent problems if the wife ever had to open one up etc.



Sounds like a sound 1st step to me.

fmcypriano

I didn't know Knox before I see it on Agile front page. I'm (was?) using TrueCrypt to create and manage secure files, but I was using it too little and decide to give Knox a try.



Knox is very simple to manage (open and close) secure images, it's more mac-like than TrueCrypt. But, the downside is that the images can't be opened in another OS, and TrueCrypt images can.



Since I'm looking for a productive way to secure my files it's better to have a nice and faster interface than to be able to open images from another OS.



What would be [B]the feature[/B] to add in Knox (besides Sync lock, which is also great)? [B]Integrate Knox and 1Password[/B], allowing me to cmd+\ when I try to open an image.

roustem

Great idea! Adding a "Knox Vault" entry in 1Password and then using it inside Knox will be a nice feature.

MikeT

Not to mention a smooth way for Knox to integrate 1Password backups into their own vault, double encryption is better than one. :)



One thing I really want is the ability to add common profiles to mount folders that other software to use. Suppose a Mail.app Profile, it'll mount a sym-linked mail folder so that when I open Mail, all mails are directed to the vault instead, same for other apps like adium and stuff. Don't really want to do this via command lines, Knox should take care of this for me.

Ben

[quote name='MikhailT']double encryption is better than one. :)[/QUOTE]



Ah... sometimes. But not necessarily. ;)

MikeT

[quote name='bwoodruff']Ah... sometimes. But not necessarily. ;)[/QUOTE]



Ok, stronger or total encryption to complement the weaker/partial encrypted data. Agile keychain don't have the username encrypted. I rather have the whole folder encrypted instead of just the password itself being encrypted.

[Deleted User]

[quote name='MikhailT']Ok, stronger or total encryption to complement the weaker/partial encrypted data. Agile keychain don't have the username encrypted. I rather have the whole folder encrypted instead of just the password itself being encrypted.[/QUOTE]



Actualy, as far as I know, the only items that are unencrypted in the Agile Keychain are the title and location (URL) or a login item, everything else is fully encrypted. Of course if you store your username in the title field then this won't be encrypted. We felt that encrypting everything would give an unacceptable response time when wanting to do things like filling a login with a browser. Of course we may revisit this in the future, but for now the title and location are in the clear, but that's all.

Locker

Well, I am on travel again (hello thightower) and have less free time at the moment. I just saw your Knox announcement (when I was searching for the 1Password for PC). Usually I am doing a lot of research before trying a software, and even more before i buy it, but seen (as a user and beta tester) how Agile works for the past few years, I feel comfortable doing exactly the opposite here: First buying and later 'researching' :)





Somewhere else (I'll try to find the posting later) I already had a discussion about having some way to protect (encrypt) the title and the url too, if I want to put my Agilekeychain on a public server (Dropbox etc). I think is was Dave Teare that mention that he may look into storing the file on an encrypted dmg file... So maybe now Knox may do the job...

The limitation of being able to access it only on Mac OS is still a problem, when considering that I need to access my passwords via1PasswordAnywhere from Windows, and now also via 1Password for Windows.



Well, let me first get the Knox and see what it does.

MikeT

[quote name='stu']Actualy, as far as I know, the only items that are unencrypted in the Agile Keychain are the title and location (URL) or a login item, everything else is fully encrypted. Of course if you store your username in the title field then this won't be encrypted. We felt that encrypting everything would give an unacceptable response time when wanting to do things like filling a login with a browser. Of course we may revisit this in the future, but for now the title and location are in the clear, but that's all.[/QUOTE]



I put username in title to tell the difference between multiple accounts on same site, unless I'm blind and missing something, there's no other way to do this.

roustem

[quote name='MikhailT']I put username in title to tell the difference between multiple accounts on same site, unless I'm blind and missing something, there's no other way to do this.[/QUOTE]



Login titles (and URLs) are not encrypted so that 1Password doesn't have to decrypt everything in order to display the available items.



I guess one option would be to use something like "business/personal" suffix instead of the username to differentiate the logins.

thightower

[quote name='Locker']Well, I am on travel again (hello thightower) [/quote]



Long time no see, Hi back at you. :)





You will love Knox. I do. I originally purchased it due to its ease of use in case the wife needed to open a vault etc. or create one. I didnt think she would like true crypt that much, or be easy for her to use.



Agile bought a great product, now lets see where they take it. I can only expect great things to come. The fact that Agile purchased it has to mean it a sound product.

Lewys

I downloaded Knox to try it out yesterday.



Just bought a license after being suitably impressed; seems like a very sound product already, can't wait to see what you guys do with it in the future though! :-)

MartyS

[quote name='Lewys']I downloaded Knox to try it out yesterday.



Just bought a license after being suitably impressed; seems like a very sound product already, can't wait to see what you guys do with it in the future though! :-)[/QUOTE]



Thanks for the vote of confidence! It's appreciated.

klute

Congratulations on the purchase. I've been a registered user of Knox for several years now and I'm glad that a respected developer which works on its products has taken over the app. With Agile (and its reputation) behind it I hope that Knox gets the attention and sales it deserves.

[Deleted User]

Hi Klute,



Thanks so much for the kind words, we really appreciate them. We're incredibly excited to have Knox as part of our product family, and I know Dave & Roustem have some great ideas for the future!



Thanks again,

rob_gendreau

I too am a current TrueCrypt user. I am wondering what benefits I'd gain from switching? It seems to be a similar technology.



The things I like about TrueCrypt are that I can open its volumes on PCs. And I can open them on Macs. If, eg, I'm at a friend's house playing on his Mac and want to open one of my TrueCrypt volumes I can just download the softtware and fire it up. Does Knox allow you to do that, even if it's just on a Mac?

MikeT

[quote name='rob_gendreau']I too am a current TrueCrypt user. I am wondering what benefits I'd gain from switching? It seems to be a similar technology.



The things I like about TrueCrypt are that I can open its volumes on PCs. And I can open them on Macs. If, eg, I'm at a friend's house playing on his Mac and want to open one of my TrueCrypt volumes I can just download the softtware and fire it up. Does Knox allow you to do that, even if it's just on a Mac?[/QUOTE]



Truecrypt is basically cross-platform where Knox is only for the Macs. You can open a truecrypt file on any OS (if formatted as such), can't open Knox (which is the same as OS X Image Encryption via Disk Utility) vaults on other platform.

MartyS

Just to make sure your question is fully answered: yes, you can open a Knox vault on another Mac. The Knox application is only for ease-of-use and backup purposes.