Reminiscor
Reminiscor is a minimal and easy to set-up password manager application which is available on Windows and Linux systems. It uses 256-bit AES encryption along with an imporved algorithm of the well known Enigma Machine to encrypt your data. It is offline and has facilities to share and backup password entries, making it secure and reliable. It's also free and open-source for development.
Use your master password to secure all your files with 256-bit AES encryption along with each individual password entry being encrypted with "Enigma keys" which are unique and generated during run-time. After a new entry is added another layer of enigma encryption is applied on all passwords, after which the final layer of AES encryption comes into play. The AES encryption key is derived from the master password.
Some might see this as a drawback but I as a developer would like to keep my passwords only with me! Instead of trust, Reminiscor gives you the oppurtunity to review it's security. Also it provides backup options, where all user files can be put onto a remote repository or onto storage media, to restore entries or to port them to a new device at any given time, all backup files are safe to store anywhere too.
You might have the idea that sharing password entries or accounts is hard in offline password managers. Reminiscor lets you make a "shared passwords file" which may have one or many passwords to share around as an encrypted file with other users, which can be decrypted only with the combination of the correct usernames and common password set by you and the person(s) to share with.
Enigma was sophisticated, the reason it failed was because of its physical limitations. In Reminiscor the newer version of the Enigma algorithm is capable of generating upto 2 x 10457 unique possible enigma keys that can encrypt all characters in the English alphabet along with numbers and special characters. This allows us to have an additional layer of security under the AES encryption which remains the outer and the most secure layer.
Reminiscor was built for a user-friendly experience and this section highlights the capabilities of Reminiscor and what you can expect of it!
Reminiscor is offline but not in an inconvenient way. It has a fully fledged backup import and export system. All backups are secure to store anywhere and can only be decrypted using the master password which generates a 32 byte key using PBKDF2 for AES decryption of the top layer and enigma keys are used to decrypt each entry at the bottom level.
Reminiscor was built as an offline application because it didn’t require the user to blindly trust the app.
Thus being off thr grid, it proves that there is no one between you and your data and that you have full control.
‘PASSWORD123’ is not a good password for your gmail account! I am sure they tell you what length your password should be, but you still can’t be predictable to attackers. Now that you don’t have to remember any of your passwords consider using the inbuilt password generator which generates passwords in the range of 8 characters to 40 characters and these passwords contain at least one capitalized letter, one number and one special character.
These lengthy passwords can always be copied while viewing a specific entry. The password generator is very
useful tool since it saves time and boosts security.
Encryption is the method to store data in a manner such that if it’s intercepted by an attacker, he/she cannot make any sense of it. Ages have been spent finding methods to encrypt and decrypt data fast and efficiently. After a lot of improvisation the current best standard on the planet namely AES, abbreviated as the ‘Advanced Encryption Standard’ is what is widely used to secure data in digital world.
Reminiscor uses 256-bit (length) keys for AES encryption and decryption and these keys are generated using PBKDF2. Each entry before being
encrypted by AES are encrypted by a polyalphabetic stream cipher system called 'Enigma' which was developed by the Germans during the second World War. Though the system was
comprised due to it’s physical limitations now the algorithm is improved and provides an additional layer of security for the users. Each Enigma
key consists of randomly generated plugboard keys, three randomly generated moving rotors that can increment after every letter is encrypted just
like the original algorithm and finally reflector pairs which are also random. Following is an illustration of the layers of encryption.
Password entries can be shared among family members and friend circles using common passwords. This functionality creates an encrypted file which can be shared with anyone since it’s totally secure (encrypted) and also it can be decrypted only by users who’s usernames were entered by you while creating this file (refer documentation on how to share passwords).
Reminiscor is an open source project, this not only helps improve functionality through community support but also provides trust for the user since he or she can look into the workings of Reminiscor and understand it’s functionality and even improve them!
Reminiscor welcomes beginners and people with not much experience to password managers. A portable version is provided for simplicity and there is a step by step guide for usage in the documentation.
Reminiscor is built for Windows and Linux. It is updated when necessary and the updates are available here with the change logs.
| Serial Number | Version Number | Change log | Windows | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.2 | First Release | Reminiscor Portable [v0.2]↓ | Coming Soon |
Reminiscor documentation has been made into a pdf which can be downloaded from here.
If you face any issues and cannot solve it using the documentation hit me up on: arjun.somvanshi2019@vitstudent.ac.in
Created by Arjun Somvanshi and Manvendra Somvanshi