Password Gorilla
A cross-platform Password Manager
Now Available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, *BSD, etc.
Free, Open Source Software!
Version 1.4
Table of Contents
Password GorillaA cross-platform Password Manager Now Available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, *BSD, etc. Free, Open Source Software! Version 1.4 Table of Contents |
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Too many passwords to remember?
Do you forget passwords?
Do you re-use passwords?
Do you keep passwords written down?
Many internet services require you to "log in." You choose a user name and a password, in combination called a "login," that authenticate you to the service.
Over time, managing a plethora of logins becomes near impossible. Few people can remember more than a handful of passwords. This inevitably leads to either a proverbial yellow sticker on your desk, with all the passwords written down, or to the reuse of the same few passwords over and over again. Neither approach is very secure. In the first case, a co-worker could spy on your passwords, in the second, if an attacker manages to guess or intercept your passwords, many of the services you use can be accessed.
Adding to the confusion is the multitude of password policies that different services enforce. E.g., some services require passwords to contain mixed case and non-alphabetic characters, or to be shorter or longer than a certain number of characters. Other services require you to change passwords every month, quarter, or year.
The Password Gorilla Can Help!
The Password Gorilla helps you manage your logins. It stores all your user names and passwords, along with login information and other notes, in a securely encrypted file. A single "master password" is used to protect the file. This way, you only need to remember the single master password, instead of the many logins that you use.
If you want to log in to a service or Web site, the Password Gorilla copies your user name and password to the clipboard, so that you can easily paste it into your Web browser or other application. Because the password does not appear on the screen, Password Gorilla is safe to use in the presence of others.
The convenience of Password Gorilla allows you to choose different, non-intuitive passwords for each service. An integrated random password generator can provide one-time passwords, tunable to various services' policies.
Why "Gorilla"?
Password Gorilla is named for the cartoon gorilla that is doorman of the Ink and Paint Club in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. The gorilla lets the movie's hero, Eddie Valiant, pass only after uttering the right password: "Walt sent me."
The "Twofish" encryption algorithm is used to secure your password database. It is not possible to break into a password database without knowing the master password.
Password Gorilla is designed to be compatible with the Password Safe program, which was originally developed by Counterpane Labs, and is now maintained as an Open Source project at Sourceforge. All credit for the idea and the technology behind Password Gorilla belong to the authors and maintainers of Password Safe.
While Password Safe is an excellent piece of free software, it is only available for the Microsoft Windows platform. Password Gorilla is compatible with most major operating systems, including Apple Macintosh OS X and diverse flavors of Unix. If you work with more than just Windows, Password Gorilla allows you to access your password database anywhere.
No matter which operating system, Password Gorilla offers a few stand-out features, such as the merging of password databases. This is particularly useful if you have multiple copies of your database (e.g., at home and at work). Occasionally, you can then merge the two databases, collecting the updates you made on either end.
Also, Password Gorilla is an independent alternative to Password Safe. In the unlikely event that development of Password Safe is ever discontinued, you will still be able to use Password Gorilla to access your password database files.
Password Gorilla is platform-independent software, and runs on most operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, and many flavors of Unix. Password Gorilla has been tested on Windows, Linux and Solaris.
There are multiple download options, depending on your operating system and preference. There is a pre-built executable for Microsoft Windows, a ready-to-run Starkit, or Password Gorilla's source code.
You can, e.g., copy the Password Gorilla executable to a memory stick, along with your password database, to have your passwords available wherever you go.
The OS X version was contributed by Marcel Scherello. Please contact Marcel directly if you have questions about the Mac OS X version. See also his change log.
To run the Password Gorilla Starkit, you need a Tclkit for your platform. Tclkits exist for many operating system, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD and others. (Mac OS X note: you need the Wishkit, not the Tclkit.) Follow the link to the "Download" section in the right-hand menu, and then to the "download area." Use any "8.4" version.
Don't forget to assign execute permission to the tclkit
after downloading, i.e., chmod +x tclkit
After following the installation instructions for tclkit, you should be able to run Password Gorilla by typing
tclkit gorilla-1.4.kit
at the console. If desired, rename the ".kit" file as "gorilla",
assign execute permission (i.e., chmod +x gorilla),
and move both tclkit and "gorilla" to a directory in your
"$PATH". After that exercise, Password Gorilla can be started by
typing gorilla at a console.
Note: default builds of tclkit come without support for internationalization, but only with support for the ASCII and ISO-8859-1 character sets. To use Password Gorilla with other character sets, use the source code below.
In order to run the Password Gorilla sourcecode, you need to download and install Tcl/Tk (at least Tcl/Tk 8.4 is required, follow the links in the "Latest Releases" box in the upper left corner), as well as the [incr Tcl] and BWidget add-on packages.
ActiveState offers free downloads of its ActiveTcl product for several operating systems. ActiveTcl includes all packages that Password Gorilla requires.
After installing Tcl/Tk, Unix users can run
./configure
to configure Password Gorilla with your installed version of Tcl/Tk. Password Gorilla can then be started by running "gorilla". If desired, create a symbolic link to "gorilla" in one of the directories that are in your search PATH.
Please refer to the Help File.
This section details changes between versions of Password Gorilla. Each subsection lists the changes, updates and fixes from its predecessor. The latest version is listed first.
Released July 3, 2006.
Released January 12, 2006.
Released June 26, 2005.
~/.gorillarc or the Registry.
Released April 23, 2005.
Released January 15, 2005.
Released December 17, 2004.
Released December 6, 2004.
Released December 5, 2004.
Initial public release.
Password Gorilla is free, Open Sorce software, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Password Gorilla does not need to be registered, does not contain any adware or spyware, does not contain any back doors, and does not send any information over the internet or otherwise. The GPL preserves your freedom to inspect the software, and to validate that these statements are true.
There is no warranty or support for Password Gorilla.
Platform maintainers wanted: Please contact the author if you are interested in maintaining a Password Gorilla "port" for a specific operating system, or distribution. This involves validating Password Gorilla's behavior on that operating system, contributing installation instructions, and possibly writing operating system-specific source code to improve Password Gorilla, if necessary.
The gorilla artwork was contributed by Andrew J. Sniezek.
The original Password Safe inspired the creation of Password Gorilla. Its authors and maintainers deserve credit for the database and encryption technologies that this software uses.
Password Gorilla could not exist without the excellent Open Source tools that it depends on:
Frank Pilhofer, fp -AT- fpx.de