I'd like to encrypt some master passwords that I want to store with added security outside of KeePass, instead as just a normal record in the database. I was considering storing these passwords in an encrypted RAR file, but now I think that could not be a very good idea since it could be possible that there is some bug/backdoor in the RAR library that could make cracking it easily.

I'd like to consider encrypting the master passwords with GnuPGP (AES) with a combination of a key instead of plain passwords. Now I'd like to know if it would be more secure to encrypt the master passwords with the key instead of with just AES and the password. Because wouldn't it be more resource intensive to bruteforce an encryption key to retrieve the password that it's encrypted with than just to bruteforce the AES encrypted file to find out the password?

  • With a strong password it shouldn't be a problem. The attacker would have to attempt a decrypt of the file for each password try. This alone would be fairly expensive. – RoraΖ Jan 5 '15 at 13:59
  • I'm not quite sure I get what you're planning to do. What do you mean by 'key' in contrast to 'password'? – TheWolf Jan 5 '15 at 15:34
  • I mean a 2048/4096 gpg key with that – EarthMind Jan 5 '15 at 20:18

depends on your key length, but think of a key as the first "long"(hashed) version of your password (used in proper used cryptographic that is) so, in short its impossible to answer.

But when used with a appropriate long key file, it can be a lot more secure than a password.

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