Top 10 Best Password Managers to Secure Your Accounts in 2024

Did you know that “81% of data breaches” are due to weak or reused passwords? At present, hackers have large archives of passwords (leaked passwords in data breaches). The most famous wordlist, which is often used by pentesters and hackers, is “rockyou.txt” (leaked in 2009 by compromising the systems of a company named RockYou). The rockyou.txt wordlist comes with many Linux distributions like Kali Linux, Parrot, etc.

In today’s world, everyone uses social media and creates many accounts on various websites. Remembering the passwords for hundreds of websites is nearly impossible. Additionally, we can’t use the same passwords for multiple accounts due to security reasons. To solve this problem, password managers were invented. A password manager is responsible for storing and encrypting all your passwords in one place, protecting them from hackers, so you don’t need to remember different passwords for different accounts.

By the end of this article, you will be able to manage your hundreds of passwords securely without hesitation. Let’s Start…

Top 10 Best Password Managers to Secure Your Accounts in 2024

Browser Password Manager

Browser password managers are built into today’s browsers, such as Chrome Password Manager, Brave Password Manager, Firefox Password Manager, etc. Most browsers use “AES-256 encryption“, which is very difficult to crack by brute force, but can be compromised if someone gains access to your local browser data (AppData). In such cases, anyone can decrypt the usernames and passwords of all your autofill information using a Python script.

Comparisons:

1. You can use “iCloud Keychain“, Apple’s official password manager, if you own Apple products only.
   • Saves passwords locally in Safari.
   • Provides Touch ID or Face ID for authentication of passwords.

1. “Google Chrome“ comes with a new feature of 2FA in Google Password Manager with biometric or security key verification.
2. • Saves passwords locally in Chrome.
   • Provides cross-device sync with encryption.
   • Uses DPAPI (Windows Data Protection API) for encryption of keys.
3. “Brave Password Manager“ provides zero-knowledge encryption (Brave doesn’t know your password).
   • Saves passwords locally in Brave.
   • Cross-device sync available, but not up to the mark.
4. “Edge Password Manager“ syncs all your passwords with your Microsoft account, with biometric/face recognition support.
   • Can be synced across different devices with a Microsoft account.
   • Encryption keys are managed by DPAPI (Windows Data Protection API).
5. “Mozilla Firefox“ allows you to manually set up a master password.
   • Saves passwords locally in Firefox.
   • Sync across devices can be done by a Firefox account with encryption.

Online Password Manager

Online password managers are widely used these days because of their robust encryption algorithms (AES-256) to secure passwords and sensitive data, automatic updates, and many other features, as discussed below:

• Bitwarden

• • Pros:
    • Hosts its own Bitwarden server.
    • Cross-platform support.
    • 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication): Bitwarden Authenticator
    • Zero-knowledge encryption.

1. • Cons:
     • Google Firebase Analytics and Microsoft Visual Studio App Center may cause crashes; two trackers are present to collect data in case of an app crash.

• Synology C2

  • Pros:
    • Supports YubiKeys.
    • Free password manager with most features integrated.
    • Secure file transfer channel.
  • Cons:
    • No desktop app available.

• RoboForm

  • Pros:
    • MFA.
    • Data breach monitoring.
  • Cons: Only available for desktop browsers.

• NordPass

  • Pros:
    • Passkey support.
  • Cons:
    • Does not have 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication); starts as a paid service.
    • Does not have TOTP (Time-based one-time password) feature

• 1Password

  • Pros:
    • Provides Travel Mode, which is useful when traveling to another country; it can temporarily delete passwords from local storage for better security.
    • Does not use trackers for crash reports or advertising.
  • Cons:
    • It is a paid service.

• Dashlane

  • Pros:
    • Allows changing key derivation functions; uses machine learning for auto-fills on various sites.
    • Bulk action for changing passwords.
  • Cons:
    • Paid service; marketing attributions and tracking of aggregated user data. Security audit reports are not publicly available online.

• Keeper Security

  • Pros:
    • Offline mode availability.
    • 10GB of cloud storage.
    • One-time password sharing feature.
  • Cons:
    • Free version supports only one device.

Offline Password Manager

• KeePass/KeePassXC:

• • Pros:
    • Completely offline and customizable.
    • Open-source software.
    • Supports YubiKey.
    • Can integrate with browser extensions for Chrome, Brave, Firefox, and Edge.
  • Cons:
    • Some features in the mobile version are now paid, but KeePassXC is best for setting up and using standalone on all devices without synchronization.

Bonus Tips for Managing Passwords:

• Don’t use simple text; instead, use passwords that are 15-50 characters long with alphanumeric, ASCII, and random characters, and symbols.
• Create a sentence using leetspeak in your password, e.g., Wh@tmyP@$$word1s.
• Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts.
• Don’t rely solely on passwords; enable MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) for all your accounts.
• Change the passwords for accounts that have been leaked in data breaches using services like “Google One“ or “Have I Been Pwned”.

Conclusion

Using built-in browser password managers is not preferable nowadays due to security concerns. It is very easy to extract plain text passwords from the default file of a browser, which anyone can steal if your system becomes infected in the future.

Using online password managers can also lead to breaches, as seen in the LastPass password manager data breaches. Additionally, these online password manager extensions in your browser require permission to read your history and modify the data you see. Online password managers can be compromised if your email is involved in data breaches and you haven’t enabled TOTP or MFA in your password manager.

Offline password managers can be a good option, though they may be a bit of a hassle to set up and use via synchronization with online drives. However, offline password managers are the safest option for storing passwords, as they allow for a customized configuration that makes it much more difficult for hackers to access your passwords. If you are hacked in the future, you will have more time to mitigate the impact of the cyber attack.