- Each PureEncrypt vault is secured by a password. The security of your vault depends directly on the strength of its password, so choosing a strong password is key.
- Additionally for each vault a unique recovery key can be derived. This key ensures that if you forget your password, you are able to create a new one. It is a human readable form of your decrypted masterkey and therefore independent of the current vault password and highly confidential.
- This section explains how to change a password for a vault, show its recovery key and reset the password to a new one. All actions are done in the Password of the vault options. You can access it over the main window by selecting the vault in question, lock it if necessary and then open its Vault Options.
Change Password
- You can change the password of an already existing vault by clicking on the Vault Settings.
- From the change General option, click the Password.
- Click Change Password to proceed.
- You will see three steps. In the first step you need to type in your current password.
- In step 2 and 3 simply type in your new password that you want to update.
- Mark check ✔️ I understand I will not be able to access my data if I forget my password.
- Click Change and your password will be changed.
Display Recovery Key
If you missed displaying the recovery key during vault creation, you are still able to derive it and view it at a later point in time. To increase security, PureEncrypt does not store it on your hard drive and always derives it on the fly.
- In the password section, click 👁️ Display Recovery Key.
- You will be asked to type in your password. Enter your password and click Next.
- A new window will open. It shows a sequence of words inside a text field. This sequence is the recovery key of the vault, Click on Copy.
- You can copy it to your clipboard or print it to paper. If you are finished, close the window with the Copied button.
Reset Password
If you forgot the password for a vault, but saved the recovery key somewhere external, you are able to define a new password and gain access to the vault again.
- In the password option click Reset Password.
- A new prompt is opened, asking to insert your recovery key into the shown text box. Enter it there by copying it from a file or typing.
- If the recovery key is valid, PureEncrypt indicates this by a small message and activates the Next button.
- In the last step you need to assign a new password to your vault. It is the same as during vault creation except that no new recovery key is generated. As already noted there, read the suggestion for choosing a good password.
- Finish the dialog by entering the same password again and clicking the Reset button. You can unlock your vault now with the new password.
