[APP] SAFE - new password manager app

[kiwiguy]

SAFE - Password Manager java app

SAFE is a new Password Manager program that has just been released that works perfectly on the A1200 and appears to use a pretty secure encryption. The download file is available at the author's site at http://www.javawi.de/index2.html. Latest (and final version) is 2.4.1

I have replaced CellSafe (the password mgr that I have been using on my phone up to now) with this new "Safe" app for 2 main reasons:

1. You can download a Window's interface called SafeDeskTop that permits you to type in/maintain all your passwords pretty quicky on your PC (or import from a file) rather than having to enter them all via the phone's keypad.

2. It comes with a fairly easy method for synchronzing between the Windows copy of your password file and the copy on your phone - and I always like to have an (encrypted) copy of my password file on my PC for backup.

Here are some A1200-specific instructions on how to install and use it:

Installing "Safe" on Phone

1. Download jar file from getjar and install to your SD card
2. Edit permissions in registry file to permit it to read/write files to SD card (or run Java Hacker app to do same thing). See "Guide to Modding" sticky if you do not know what I am talking about! Don't forget to go to Manage-->Permissions and click on OK to force the permissions change to take effect.
3. Start app and type in your master password. This should be at least 8 char and be a combination of letter and numbers as this password is what is used as the key for the cipher to encrypt the database file - so the stonger the password the more secure the encryption.
4. You can then start entering in the passwords into the phone if you wish. It is very straighforward - they are just displayed as a simple list (there are no categories)

Installing "SafeDeskTop" on PC

1. Download windows SafeDeskTop GUI by going to the developer's site at http://www.javawi.de/ and clicking on WebStart in SafeDeskTop section. You need to have Java Runtime Environment 6 installed on your PC in order to install it.
2. Start SafeDesktop and type in the same password as you entered on phone.
3. Enter in all your passwords

Syncing between phone and PC

1. Sync over the Internet

You are able to synchronize the Safe password database on your phone with your PC's Safe password database over the internet (you need internet connectivy and data plan). The developer's website has a brief explanation on how to do this and it sounds very straightforward, but I was not able to get it to work!! - and as there are no error messages (other then sync failed) was impossible for me to debug. If you want to give it a try then in summary:

1. Look up the IP address of your PC (type ipconfig from a DOS session) and enter the value you obtain (eg 168.100.250.47) into Menu-->Settings in the Safe app on your Phone.
2. Ensure port 8080 on your PC is not blocked by a firewall or a NAT
3. Start SafeDeskTop on PC and click on Synchronize in Menu
4. Start Safe on phone and select Menu-->Sync....and the databases should sync.

Edit Sept 3: Thanks to help from the developer I was able to get my synchronization over the internet working tonight. The issue was that my PC is connected to the internet via a router and therefore my PC was not directly reachable from the internet. What I had to do was redirect port 8080 on my router to my desktop machine. (Most dsl routers support such an option - on mine it was called "Port Forwarding").

After that, all I had to do was configure Safe to use the official (a.k.a external) IP address - obtained from my router. Then I just started SafeDesktop and selected Synchronization from the menu; then also selected Synchronization on Safe on my phone and the two synchronized in about 60 seconds.

[Please keep in mind that most dsl carriers do not provide static IP addresses - so you may need to modify the IP address in Safe from time to time]

2. Manual Sync

You can also sync manually by copying the (encrypted) xml file that SafeDeskTop stores the passwords in on your PC to your phone and then importing this file into Safe on the phone. You do this as follows:

1. Type in all your passwords on SafeDeskTop on PC and exit app
2. Go to c:\Documents and Settings\Your account\.SafeDesktop and you will see the file safe_encrypted.xml. (If you can not find it then use search to find this file.)
3. This is the encrypted database file.
4. Plug your phone into PC in USB Mass Storage Mode
5. Copy the file safe_encrypted.xml from your PC to the root of your SD card.
6. Unplug phone
7. Start Safe on your phone
8. Got to Menu-->Import/Export and select Import and press OK
9. You should get a screen asking you the name and location of the file to import (if you do not then you have not fixed the app's permissions correctly)
10. Type safe_encrypted.xml and press OK
11. The contents of the file will be imported into the database on the phone.
12. If you want you can leave safe_encrypted.xml on your SD card as it is encrypted and it makes a good backup copy.

The only glitch is that the import adds to anything already in the Password database, so if you do this more than once, you will get duplicate entries. To resolve this you can always safely delete the entire database on your phone before the import and start fresh (This only works if you installed the Safe program to your SD card). This method means, however, that you should only add/modify passwords from your PC.

1. Plug phone into PC in USB Mass Storage Mode
2. Go to .system\java\DownloadApps and find the folder where it contains the Safe application (do a search for "safesafe.db if not sure).
3. Delete the files safesafe.db and safesafe.idx (These 2 files should have the most recent timestamps as this is where the passwords are stored)
4. Disconnect phone
5. Start Safe (with same master password as before) and you should see that password database is empty. You can now import entire list from PC as described above

You can also move your password file from your phone to your PC by doing the reverse. You can do an export from within Safe to create an ENCRYPTED xml file on your SD card that can be copied to the c:\Documents and Settings\"Your account"\.SafeDesktop directory on your phone and remamed to safe_encrypted.xml. This file will be used next time SafeDeskTop is started.

Note: SafeDeskTop also has an import function - but can only import data from UNENCRYPTED xml files. Do not use it to import the ENCRYPTED xml file exported from Safe.

Enjoy!!

[eakrin]

thanks. It a good app. I keep it as must install app now.

[kiwiguy]

Thanks to help from the developer of Safe, I was able to get the Internet synchronization working successfully tonight.

First post edited to include instructions.

[eakrin]

I read net-sync or network sync but it's too difficult to do that. so I skip it just backup of rms data in MIDletXXX folder is should ok.

Safe is easy to use but not feature more like Cellsafe. both of them is good app.

[Clode]

Hi, i have 2 problems. i cant make it work fine.
1) The Syncronize only works from phone to pc safedesktop. If a made a register in the phone and sync, the register go to pc safedesktop, but if i made a register in pc safedesktop, this dont go to phone.

2) I made all the steps to tranfer de xml file, and when i choose it in the phone to import, the phone ask if i use proxy...?? any choice (y/n) and safe give me an error, and dont import de xml.

I made yet a big list of files in my pc safedesktop, and i cant put it in the phone


Any help in any of 2 ways??

Thanks!!

[kiwiguy]

The Syncronize only works from phone to pc safedesktop

It works both ways for me. Check your settings on the PC app to make sure there is not some option controlling direction of sync.

the phone ask if i use proxy...?? any choice (y/n)

Not sure what is going on here! I would create a dummy entry in phone version and then do an export. It will create a file on your SD card. Then try to reimport that same file back in. If successful then simply copy your good version (from PC) and replace that same file on SD card (i.e call same name) then reimport back in.

[Clode]

Well, i reinstall safe. I change app permission with the *Guide to Modding*
and i have new data.
If i made an entry in phone, Export to Sd (always ask for proxy, i choose yes) and then import from Sd to safe, works all ok.
Then, i think that the problem is de xml file that i copy from PC safedesktop to phone.
And when i try to import, safe in phone giveme an error like Error Database
I get the xml file from pc in c:\documents and settings\user....etc.
I see when i export file in phone, that the phone says exporting plain text.
The xml file from pc desktop (c:\documents and settings\user....etc.) is in another format?

any idea?

[Clode]

Well, i found the error.

No caracters like "tilde" ---- á
No caracters like ñ
No caracters like "diameter simbol"


And its works.

Byes

[kiwiguy]

Glad you got it solved. So if I understand you correctly the id and passwords that you enter in this app can not use any Unicode characters like ñ, á etc?
.

[Clode]

Right, that´s correct.