Password Manager Extension 2.0

[urvashi]

This is an edited transcript of the 01.19.24 IT Hour 

Key Takeaways

• Password Manager Extension 2.0 is scheduled to go GA in the first week of February, offering a completely new user experience, including login, editing, settings, and improvements in folder structure for enhanced organization and security.

• The update allows users to create multiple personal folders and provides administrators with the ability to control who can create and share folders within the organization, improving access control and security.

• The browser extension has been upgraded to reduce the steps required to add new accounts from four to one, streamline the process of excluding sites from the Password Manager, and introduce a feature to remember the last used credentials, making login processes quicker and more efficient.

• A global search function in the new extension enables searching across all folders and items, significantly improving navigation and the ease of finding stored information.

• A comprehensive Q&A session addresses user concerns, such as the transfer of ownership for folders when a user leaves the company, enhancements to organizing items, and the future roadmap for the product.

• For a deeper understanding of these updates and to see the Password Manager Extension 2.0 in action, check out the full video here.

Speakers

• Becky Scott, Head of Community, JumpCloud
• Himanshu Sharma, Product Manager, JumpCloud 

Transcript

Okay, so today we are going to talk about our Password Manager extension 2.0, which will go GA (General Availability) in the first week of February. You guys will see a complete new user experience with the login experience, editing, settings and the folder structure. Today we’ll talk about Shared Folders, Personal Folders, and then Password Manager Extension 2.0. 

Shared Folders

There were a lot of customers who asked for the ability to create a shared folder that can be shared with anyone within the company. So if you’re one of those administrators who wants to have control over security and ensure that there are specific groups of users or specific users in the organization who can create a shared folder to share with the team, you can do that now with better access control. You’ll have an option in the Admin Portal to specify which user or user group can create shared folders. 

Personal Folder Management

In order to better categorize and organize passwords, users can now create multiple personal folders to categorize their accounts. You can have a folder for work accounts and another for personal logins like Netflix or social media. 

The other thing is that admins or users who are managing shared folders can now create a personal folder, take their time preparing it and then share that folder with the team rather than creating a shared folder and making changes after it’s been shared. That way the people receiving these shared folders don’t get confused with 10 accounts on day one and then another day there’s 15 or 5. They don’t have to raise questions or concerns about that. 

Browser Extension 2.0 

And now to our browser extension 2.0. Most of you have already tried our browser extension. 

Adding a New Account

Challenge: One of the main pain points we had with our browser extension was that adding a new account was confusing and time consuming. Every time you wanted to add a new account you would have to login, click on the extension, click on the review button, and then go through four different steps to enroll the account into Password Manager. 

Solution: Now we’ve reduced that to one step only. You can add an account right there when you’re logging in

Excluding a Site

Challenge: Then there was no clear option on how to exclude sites. For example if I’m logging into one particular site that I don’t want to save in Password Manager, every time I go to that site the extension would ask me if I want to save to Password Manager or not. That became irritating. If you said no one time, why did it keep coming back? 

Solution: Now if you’re logging into a site for the first time we will ask only once if you want the information to be saved in Password Manager or not. If you say no, we won’t ask again unless that site is removed from the exclusion list. 

Multiple Accounts for One Website

Challenge: The next issue we had, which is very common especially for IT Admins, is having multiple accounts for one website. So every time you want to login to that site you would have to scroll through every single account to find the right one.

Solution: Now we will remember the last used credential so that the next time you login you’ll see the last used credential at the top. If there isn’t a last used credential it’ll show you the items that are relevant to that site. 

UX Improvements

• Default View on Login Screens
• The extension will automatically show you items related to the site you’re currently on, so you don’t have to search or scroll through the entire list. 
• Only if you haven’t added a site to Password Manager, it’ll show you all the items available
• You can also change the view to see the most recently used items for that site. 
• Search and Navigation of Password Manager items
• In the past if you selected the “All Items” view you would only see items in your default personal folder. 
• Now you see items across all your personal and shared folders so you don’t have to manually change and go through each folder to find something. 
• The search function now goes through all folders, not just the current folder 
• Site Specific Settings using “Item Settings”
• Autofill 
• Auto submit
• Icon offset (prevents the icon from overlapping with content)
• Exact Domain Only (only display items with the exact domain/subdomain)
• Autofill 2FA
• Display 2FA Notiviation 
• Global Options now include
• Links to the What’s New and Support pages
• Sync with Device option to make sure your browser and desktop Password Managers are in sync
• Disable extension on this URL adds the site
• Lock/Unlock extension 
• Global Settings now include
• Make JumpCloud your default Password Manager
• Auto Login 
• Auto Submit 
• View excluded websites
• Icon offset (prevents the icon from overlapping with content)
• Exact Domain Only (only display items with the exact domain/subdomain)
• Show Matching Items 
• Autofill 2FA
• Display 2FA Notification 
• Download Logs
• Disconnect

Password Generator & Auto Save

Let’s say you’re registering on a new account. You enter your email address and it asks you to create a password. Now our Password Manager is smart enough to detect that the user is either trying to create, reset, or update a password. That’s where the password generator pops up. It’ll help you create a complex password. You can choose the character lengths and type of characters to include. These settings will also be remembered the next time you want to generate a password. You can also change those settings again to generate a password of different complexity. 

But this new, complex password may not be easy to remember. So the Password Manager extension is going to give you the option to automatically save this new password. In the past if you created a new password, you would have to copy and paste that into the Password Manager, but now if the account doesn’t exist, you can just click add to save it. Next time you try to authenticate, on the mobile app or a paired device, the extension can autofill that longer, more secure complex password for you. 

You can also choose Ignore instead of Add, the next time you try to login it’ll ask you one more time at which point you can add it or exclude the website. 

Q&A

Q: Let's say a user creates a shared folder, and that user leaves when I deactivate or delete that user. What happens with that folder? In other words, will I get prompted to transfer ownership to someone else?

A: As the administrator you always have access to the folder permissions. So if the person leaves the company you can login to the admin portal, select their folder and change its ownership to a different user. 

Q: What happens to personal folders when a user is deactivated or deleted? Do they become available to transfer?

A: No, if a user is deactivated their personal folders are gone

Q: Can a shared folder be unshared?

A:  If you remove people from that shared folder that'll basically unshare it. And if you shared it with a group, then removing that group will unshare it.

Q: Has drag and drop been added so you could simply drag things into folders? 

A: If you’re talking about the desktop app then we are working on a 2.0. It’ll take a couple of months but you’ll see a new desktop app with drag and drop, right click, select multiple items, and moving things around, and shared folder creation. The whole experience is going to be completely different. We’re working on that.  

Q: What is the invite setup process for a new user under 2.0?

A: With inviting someone to use Password Manager or if you’re inviting them to a shared folder there’s no change in that. If you’re setting up a new user, there’s no change to the onboarding experience. The only update was that you no longer have to select 10-15 images of the bike to get activated. 

Q: When will passkey support be added?

A: That’s in the backlog. We don’t have an ETA for that yet but it’s definitely on our priority list. 

Q: Does the JumpCloud Password Manager have something that other Password Managers like 1Password don’t have?

A: The biggest thing is that it’s decentralized. There’s no stress of people getting access to a master password and getting all the account information from there. 

Q: Do you plan on supporting command line utility for developers to auto complete passwords through Command Line?

A: That’s a good feature to have. It’s in our backlog. There’s no ETA for that yet. 

Q: Can we use APIs to programmatically add passwords and secrets to Password Manager? 

A: We don’t have that right now but if you can submit a feature request we can definitely look into it. 

Q: Is it a roadmap item to be able to store files in Password Manager, like login keys or secrets that need to be shared among a team?

A: Yes it’s in our roadmap. In fact, not just for files. We’re working on a way for you to be able to create any custom item based on your requirement. SSH keys, wifi password profiling, anything you need. 

Q: What about a Powershell Module for Password Manager?

A: A feature request for that would be great. 

Q: Any plans to support YubiKey with JumpCloud Password Manager instead of PIN?

A: We are working on supporting passkey instead of PIN but no plans for YubiKey right now. But you can submit a feature request for that. 

Becky Scott: But seriously, it helps us prioritize when you put in a feature request and when multiple people do it, even though it sounds repetitive, they go into a system and then we look at them by how many people have made that request. So it actually does help when more than one person puts it in. 

Himanshu, thanks for joining us and giving us the update on Password Manager. Lots of great questions. All right, thanks everyone. See you later.