Buttercup

Manage your passwords here. FREE | GITHUB.COM/BUTTERCUP-PW

Buttercup is a password manager that tries to maintain a very high security level without burdening the user with complexities. It’s a nice-looking JavaScript-based application that offers you a convenient interface for organising your passwords in a sort of vault, protected by a master password. Each vault is referred to as an ‘archive’ in Buttercup, and you can have as many archives as you like. Inside each archive, you are free to create a tree structure of categories and populate them with entries. Buttercup lets you save tips and extra memos together with names and passwords — it is possible to add any number of custom fields to an entry. If the application detects a weak password, it shows the appropriate notification. The ‘magic wand’ icon to the right of the password input fields puts a pop-up password generator with advanced settings at your fingertips.

Buttercup is accompanied by the same-named browser extension for Chrome and Chromium, which means that you don’t need to manually copy-paste your credentials from the desktop application to the browser. Technically, Chrome and Chromium (and most other web browsers) provide the same functionality out of the box, but you may want to use a third-party password manager provider if you trust it better. Buttercup seems to be a very reliable replacement for builtin password managers thanks to its advanced features, such as search, rubbish bin, password generator and more.

The whole solution is very safe: the archive, upon saving, is encrypted with AES 256bit CBC mode with a SHA256 HMAC. Encryption is performed once the password has been salted and prepared with PBKDF2 at 1,000 iterations. That’s secure.