KeePass Initialization and Use Instructions

KeePass and Password Management

How you store your passwords is very important. As part of our ongoing commitment to cybersecurity, we ask you to take steps to ensure you have secure, reliable tools for managing your credentials.

Why use KeePass? 

KeePass is a password manager that helps users securely store and manage their passwords. In alignment with the BW Acceptable Use policy on credential management, KeePass gives BW team members a standard method to store their credentials in a secure way, versus simply typing them into unprotected 0365 documents and other tools currently in use.

For anyone who tried KeePass in the distant past, you may remember it as complex and difficult to learn as quickly as you may have wanted. Over the past couple of years, though, this remarkable tool has greatly improved its UI. Today’s KeePass allows a quick and simplified setup with easy instructions. 

One final thing! Please note that your KeePass repository is yours alone, and no one else has access to it!

Access Your New Password Database

1. The BW Service Desk is delivering  KeePass to all BW team members for their use. Once you see that you have KeePass installed, first step in using the newly installed application is to open the preconfigured database on your PC. To find the preconfigured database, type “database.kdbx” into the search bar in your start menu and click on the KeePass data file link that will be shown. 

2. You will get a screen that looks like this:

The initial master password is BetterWorld. 

Upon entering the default password, you will be prompted with a screen stating the master key/master password must be changed. 

3. After hitting “OK,” this window will appear. It is asking you to create a Master Key (master password). 

The database will be encrypted with the password (passphrase) you enter here. 

THEREFORE, this must be a very strong and secure password/passphrase.*

• The passphrase you enter here should be long and built of mixed characters. 
• This passphrase will be the Master Key to all of your other passwords. You will need to know it, but you will no longer need to keep an Excel file or a Word document of your other passwords – you’ll no longer have to REMEMBER them because KeePass will remember them for you. 

KEEP IN MIND: If someone gets to your Password Database file and guesses your password, they can access all passwords you’ve stored in the KeePass database. Make sure that the “estimated quality” meter is in the green range. 

*Recommendation: 

Think “passphrase” more than “password.” Use a full sentence with capitalization, spaces, and punctuation. This will help you come up with something you’ll remember. 

DO NOT FAIL TO WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSPHRASE ON THE EMERGENCY SHEET and to STORE IT SOMEWHERE SAFE that is not a BW facility. You will be prompted to print an Emergency Sheet (pictured on next page). If you have access to a printer, go ahead and print this sheet to use to record your passphrase and the other details the sheet asks for. 

If you don’t have a printer, simply write a detailed note that mimics the details on the emergency sheet. 

Whether you have a print-out or a handwritten document: Store the sheet in an off-site secure location (i.e., not in a BW facility).

Be aware that neither KeePass nor BW IT Service Desk analysts will have access to your database if you forget your passphrase. For security reasons, you are the only person who will be able to access your database and the only way to do that is with the passphrase you have just created.

IMPORTANT! 

• Record that the backup location is “My BW OneDrive.” 

• To repeat, the database cannot be recovered without the master passphrase. For security reasons, there is no backdoor, and no universal key that can open your database!

Add an Entry

1. Open KeePass from your start menu or from file explorer.

2. Enter your Master password.

3. Two ways to begin your entry: 

Click on the drop-down next to the key+arrow icon and choose Add Entry OR 

1. Right-click into the right pane of the window, and choose “Add Entry.” 

IMPORTANT! 

• Record that the backup location is “My BW OneDrive.” 

• To repeat, the database cannot be recovered without the master passphrase. For security reasons, there is no backdoor, and no universal key that can open your database!

Add an Entry

1. Open KeePass from your start menu or from file explorer.

2. Enter your Master password.

3. Two ways to begin your entry: 

a. Click on the drop-down next to the key+arrow icon and choose Add Entry OR

b. Right-click into the right pane of the window, and choose “Add Entry.” 

4. A window will pop up. In this window you can now edit your entry: Enter a title for the record, the username and the password you use for that program or tool, the URL if applicable, etc. Some fields can be left blank if you don’t need them.

5. Two ways to enter your password in the “Repeat” field: 

1. Simply type it a second time OR 
2. Click on the three dots to the right of the first Password entry field, which will make your password visible. Then, click the three dots a second time, and it will populate the “Repeat” field. 

6. Regarding the “Expires” field: This feature allows you to set a time limit on the validity of a stored password entry. For your passwords that don’t expire, which will be most of them, leave this box unchecked. However, if you have an account for which the password expires every 30/60/90 days (or whatever the duration) — or you want to regularly change a password, even if it isn’t required by the publisher, to maintain extra security on a particular account — you can check this box and enter the date this password will expire. 

By doing so, when the expires date arrives, this entry will be shown with a red “X” icon and a strikeout font, letting you know it’s time to change this password. For more information on using the “Expires” feature, please refer to the KeePass manual. 

IMPORTANT: This is NOT SAVED yet. A tell-tale sign it is not saved is that the floppy disk icon is blue. When the entry has been saved, the floppy disk icon will turn gray. Save by clicking on the blue disk; or by choosing File -> Save. 

Don’t close the app without making sure you have saved your entries. 

Using Entries

1. Your new entry is displayed in the main entry list now, and now there are many different methods to transfer passwords stored in KeePass to other applications. Here are some example: 
   1. From the main entry list, double-click on User Name or Password to copy each of those items to your clipboard, so you can paste either as you sign-in to a device or application.
   2. Double-click on URL field and you can go directly to your site from this menu with the address opening in your default web browser. Right click the URL field to open an address in a specific browser or hold down the shift key and double-click to copy the URL to your clipboard. 
2. You can also drag & drop fields into other windows. For details, see Drag&Drop.