Barcode scanner password manager

Author: SebastianGrans

content/posts/2025-04-12-barcode-scanner-password-manager.md

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+date = '2025-04-12T17:24:03+02:00'
+title = 'Barcode Scanner Password Manager'
+summary = 'Typing long passwords by hand? Hell no!'
++++
+
+There's a Windows PC at work that, for some reason, requires its bitlocker recovery key after every
+reboot. It doesn't reboot that often, but entering a 48 digit long key by hand gets really old fast.
+Especially after you enter in the third time, because of course you mistyped something in the first
+two tries.
+
+I work in the Production Test team at Zivid, and we're the team that is responsible for all the
+tests and infrastructure that is required for production of our cameras. In the production line,
+there are many instances where a barcode scanner is used for tracking of various things.
+
+So natuarlly, someone in my team came up with the brilliant idea of making the bitlocker key into a
+QR code, and then simply scan it with a barcode scanner. No typing required and zero errors!
+
+{{< alert >}}
+**Note!** If you decide to replicate this, do *not* use a web service to generate your QR code.
+They are most likely logging everything! Instead, follow the [guide](#generate-a-qr-password-safely)
+below.
+{{< /alert >}}
+
+After this, we started joking that we should print all the password that we have on 1password, and
+instead walk around with a book of QR codes and a barcode scanner.
+
+I hope it goes without saying that this is *not* recommended.
+
+## Generate a QR password safely
+
+Like I mentioned above, if you decide to replicate this, you should *never* use an online service
+to generate your QR code!
+
+Instead, you can generate a QR code locally using the [`qrcode`](https://pypi.org/project/qrcode/)
+python library. It will install a script entrypoint allowing you to simply call:
+
+```bash
+qr "hello"
+```
+
+And it will print out a QR directly in your terminal using unicode
+[Block Elements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_Elements).
+
+<pre style="font-family: monospace; line-height: 1.15;">
+█████████████████████████████
+█████████████████████████████
+████ ▄▄▄▄▄ █▀ ▄███ ▄▄▄▄▄ ████
+████ █   █ ██▄▀ ▄█ █   █ ████
+████ █▄▄▄█ █▄▄██ █ █▄▄▄█ ████
+████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█▄█ ▀ █▄▄▄▄▄▄▄████
+████▄█ █ ▀▄██▄▀▄██▀█▄██ ▀████
+████▀ █▄▀█▄█▄▄▄█▄█▀█▄▄▄ ▄████
+█████▄▄█▄█▄▄▀▀ ▀▄▀▄▀▄█▀▀▀████
+████ ▄▄▄▄▄ ███  ▀ ▄ ▀█▄▄▄████
+████ █   █ █▄▀▄▄█▄  ██▀ ▄████
+████ █▄▄▄█ █▄ ▄█▄█▀█ █▄▀▄████
+████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█▄▄▄█▄█▄▄███▄▄████
+█████████████████████████████
+▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
+</pre>