Password Vault

A lightweight, terminal-based password manager written in Python. Stores your credentials locally behind a master password — no internet connection, no third-party cloud.

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Features

• Master password protection (SHA-256 hashing)
• Add, search, list, and delete site credentials
• Cryptographically secure password generator (secrets module)
• One-click clipboard copy for retrieved passwords
• Fully offline — your data never leaves your machine

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Demo

$ python vault.py

Create a master password: ········
Vault created. Remember your master password — it cannot be recovered.

Master password: ········
Unlocked.

[1] Add  [2] Search  [3] List  [4] Delete  [5] Quit
> 1
Site: github.com
Username: johndoe
Password (leave blank to generate one):
Length (default 16): 20
Generated password: xK$9mN!2pQ#7vR@3wL&8
Notes: work account
Entry for 'github.com' saved.

[1] Add  [2] Search  [3] List  [4] Delete  [5] Quit
> 2
Search site: github
  Site     : github.com
  Username : johndoe
  Notes    : work account
  Copy password to clipboard? (y/n): y
  Password copied to clipboard.

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Installation

Requirements: Python 3.8+

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/password-vault.git
cd password-vault

# 2. (Optional) Create a virtual environment
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate        # Windows
# source venv/bin/activate   # macOS / Linux

# 3. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4. Run
python vault.py

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Usage

Option	Action
1 Add	Save a new site, username, and password
2 Search	Find an entry by site name and copy its password
3 List	Display all saved site names
4 Delete	Remove an entry with confirmation
5 Quit	Exit the vault

Tip: Leave the password field blank when adding an entry to auto-generate a secure password.

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Project Structure

password-vault/
├── vault.py          # Main application
├── requirements.txt  # Python dependencies
├── .gitignore        # Excludes vault data and temp files
└── README.md

vault.pkl is created locally when you first run the app and is excluded from version control via .gitignore. Never share this file — it contains your stored credentials.

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Security Notes

• Passwords are stored locally in a binary file (vault.pkl). The file is excluded from git.
• The master password is hashed with SHA-256 before storage — it is never saved in plain text.
• Password generation uses Python's secrets module, which is cryptographically secure.
• Limitation: vault entries are not encrypted at rest. A planned improvement is to add AES encryption using the cryptography library.

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Planned Improvements

• AES-256 encryption for stored vault data
• Upgrade master password hashing to bcrypt / Argon2
• Export vault to an encrypted CSV
• Password strength checker on entry
• GUI version using Tkinter or a web frontend

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Tech Stack

• Language: Python 3
• Libraries: hashlib, secrets, pickle, getpass, pyperclip
• Storage: Local binary file (.pkl)

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License

MIT License — feel free to fork, modify, and use this project.

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Built as a personal project to learn Python fundamentals, secure coding practices, and CLI application design.