A new application called Keefarce, which was created by New Zealand developer Denis Andzakovic, steals passwords from the KeePass password manager tool. An attacker who gains access to a system could use Keefarce to output all the user's online passwords to an easily accessible file.

Keefarce does not attack the KeePass encryption system directly but, instead, uses DLL injection to get the KeePass application to export usernames and passwords to a cleartext CSV file. The attack lifts the passwords out of memory in as intended to run when the user has logged in and “unlocked” the password manager.

As the story in Ars Technica points out, KeePass developers have long warned that no password manager is safe when the system itself is compromised. Tools such as key loggers have been harvesting passwords for years on compromised systems. The distinguishing feature of Keefarce is its convenience – you can scoop up all the user's passwords at once.

Experts point out that KeePass is by no means the only password manager tool that is susceptible to this kind of attack, and many believe that storing your passwords in a password vault is still a good policy if it allows you to maintain more unique and less-crackable passwords – just make sure you don't get owned.