pwmgr

Simple password manager based on the 7-Zip program

Description

pwmgr.py manages an encrypted .7z archive containing a text file. Passwords are stored in and retrieved from this file. A master password must be entered to access the archive.

Requirements

7-Zip Command Line Version
python3 (3.6+)
xclip (for X selection use)

Set-up

Place pwmgr.py and the empty pvault directory in the same directory.
(Optional): Create a bash alias such as pwmgr="python full_path_to_pwmgr.py" to easily invoke the script from any bash shell with pwmgr... (otherwise replace pwmgr with python full_path_to_pwmgr.py in the following code).
Create a new 'user' with pwmgr -n username. This invokes the 7-Zip executable to create a .7z archive called username in the pvault directory. You will be prompted to enter a password for the archive, which acts as the master password for the manager. A default configuration file is also created (Configuration).
For those wishing to transfer passwords from another manager or listing, see Manually creating an archive.

Usage

Add or update a password for an application with the -u switch:

pwmgr -u application_name

A prompt will be given to enter the new password (just hit enter to have a password generated and copied to the clipboard).

To retrieve a password for an application, just use the application's name as an argument:

pwmgr application_name

By default, the first password found for that application will be copied to the clipboard.

Refer to pwmgr --help for further options and usage notes.

Configuration

During set-up, there are two main settings in pwmgr_config that you may wish to change. The format for each line of this file is setting_name setting_value (whitespace delimited).

7z_application (Default: 7z). This is the name of the 7-Zip executable on your system, typically 7z. The path to the executable may also be used if it is not on your path (e.g. /usr/bin/7z).
pvault_dir (Default: pvault). If you wish to place the pvault directory anywhere other than alongside pwmgr.py, or use a different directory name, change this to the absolute path to the directory.

For a description of all available settings, view pwmgr --help.

Manually creating an archive

pwmgr works by writing passwords to a text file called passes stored within the encrypted archive. Similar to the configuration file, the format of each line passes is a pair of fields separated by whitespace, this time describing an application's name and the associated password:

application_name application_password

The line is split on the first whitespace, so application_name cannot contain spaces.

In order to create an archive that can be used by pwmgr containing existing password, simply create a file called passes with this syntax and add it to a password protected .7z archive using the 7-Zip program using, for example,

7z a archive_name. passes -parchive_password -mhe

(the period trailing archive_name prevents 7z from appending the .7z extension which you may or may not want).

This archive must be placed in the pvault directory (or whichever directory is specified in pwmgr_config).

In order to get pwmgr to point to your new archive, use

pwmgr -sa archive_name

Equivalently, change the value the archive_name setting in pwmgr_config.

Planned features

Option to use xsel instead of xclip
Windows port using the pyclip python package
Option to include punctuation in generated passwords
Ability to remove password entries

Disclaimer

This program was written for fun. I cannot advise using it to store passwords for accounts other than those that are absolutely expendable. In particular, please do not rely on the password generator tool included with the script to create a secure password (its randomness is only as good as your system's os.urandom() implementation).

Changelog

V1.4 (2018-08-11)

Migrated from a private repository
Option to generate passwords on update
Abililty to switch archive (-sa) and create a new archive (-n)

piperfw/pwmgr