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After a bad experience with FTP credentials hacking I decided to start using SFTP and stop having FTP credentials stored in clear on my computer (Filezilla).

I now use FireFTP which encrypts credentials. However I was wondering how hard is it for a hacker to hack FireFTP credentials file?

drake035
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    If you're going to use SFTP exclusively, look into setting up your accounts with a public/private key exchange rather than a password. It's safer, and ssh in general already supports locking a private key with a passphrase. – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI Mar 26 '13 at 07:54

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Encrypted is certainly better than plain text.

Storing a password in the app, however, still has some issues in my mind. By doing so, you are essentially allowing anyone with control of your computer (the "hacker" in your question) to access your FTP server without credentials. At that point, they really don't need to decrypt your passwords at all... They can just log in and compromise the files on the server without ever knowing the password.

My recommendation is always to use a password manager that supports 2 factor authentication. Store your passwords there instead of within various apps written by various persons using varying levels of encryption.

Or use keys as @shadur pointed out in comments above... Protected with a pass phrase.

Brian Adkins
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