Saturday, August 15, 2015

Pwd Rules

This happens to me all the time: I have to create a password for a site that I dont use everyday, but its an important site, like a bank or insurance site. The site usually has some wierd set of rules that I obeyed when I created the account, but have forgotten now.

So when I go in after a while and have to get in, I have some inkling of my password, but cannot get past the auth page because of some arcane rule that is not obvious to me then. Of course, I go through the reset password procedure and THEN they list out all the requirements for the new password.

If I could see the rules one page ahead, though, I'd probably be able to remember my original one!

So here's the idea: A website called PasswordRules that stores the password rules by site. You can query by site to get the rules for that site and use it to login. Simple!

Better yet: Browser plugin that pops the rules up when you visit the site.
More: API for contributors and website owners to publish the rules programatically.

Design:
  • Create a website that has:
    • add new site and its rules
    • edit site rules
    • search for rules by site
  • Create an API that allows:
    • Search for rules by site
    • [optional] add/edit site rules
  • Create a plugin for Firefox, Chrome, etc that:
    • Uses the API to search for the current site and load up its rules in a popup