Changing the GNOME keyring password

I just changed my password yesterday -- we have a 180-day lifetime on passwords at Wake Forest -- and discovered that my GNOME keyring password still remained the same. The password is supposed to be the same as the login password so that the keyring is unlocked when you log in.

I had changed my password using the command line. Maybe the GUI tool would automatically update the keyring password, as well. (I have my doubts.)

A little googling turned up slightly outdated information. So, for posterity. One uses Seahorse which turns up as the "Passwords and Keys" application under Fedora. Just search for "seahorse":

Once you do, though, there is no obvious way to change the keyring password as this is the view first presented:

The trick is to go to the View menu, and check on "By keyring".

A left sidebar pops up showing you the three keyrings available: Passwords, PGP Keys, and Secure Shell. The Login keyring under Passwords should have a lock icon next to it:

Right click on "Login keyring", and select "Change Password", then change it to be the same as your login password. The next time you log in (even with KDE), the Login keyring will be unlocked.

Are multi-word passphrases more secure than normal passwords?

Some researchers at University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory have taken a closer look at the recently popular claim that multi-word passphrases, being several times longer, are more secure than a regular password (generally 8 to 12 characters).

The results are discouraging: by our metrics, even 5-word phrases would be highly insecure against offline attacks, with fewer than 30 bits of work compromising over half of users. The returns appear to rapidly diminish as more words are required.

They recommend a tool such as Diceware for generating passphrases.

http://xkcd.com/936/