ToothPaste Goes Where Your Password Manager Doesn’t

One of the easiest ways of improving security and privacy when using the Internet, and computers in general, is to use strong passwords unique to each site or service. ToothPaste Goes Where Your Password Manager Doesn’t. A password manager makes this easy on your phone or computer, but what if you’re in a situation where you can’t install any software on the device you’re logging into.

In that case, maybe it’s time to get out the Toothpaste. The way this creation from [brisk4t] works is that an ESP32-S3 is programmed to act as a keyboard and mouse for any computer it’s plugged into. From there, it connects over an encrypted WEB-BLE connection to another device like a laptop or smartphone.

This second device can send text to the ESP32 acting using an extension for Chromium-based browsers, and the ESP32 sends it over the USB connection as if it were nothing more than a standard keyboard. This is all done without having to install any apps or drivers on the target machine, since any machine in the last two or three decades can recognize a USB keyboard and mouse with no problem. Not only does this allow for easy password input for awkward situations, this can also be used for BIOS where an app couldn’t be installed anyway, for air-gapped systems with no networking, or insecure systems the user doesn’t trust.