Firefox software security device 2006 May 28 22:02
Posted by diamond in : Random , trackbackFirefox, by default, will offer to remember usernames/passwords etc for sites. I find this to be a very useful feature. However, i’m not all that happy about leaving such potentially sensitive material lying around unencrypted. So, when i found the following option, i was able to sleep much happier at night.
The software security device in firefox allows you to set a master password which is used to encrypt the passwords it stores on your hard drive. Once you set it, you’ll be prompted for the master password the first time firefox needs to access the data that session (though, annoyingly, i think this has been changed to being asked immediately on startup in the most recent releases).
To set the master password go to tools -> options -> advanced -> security -> security devices -> software security device -> change password.
*Update*
Thanks to mikael for pointing out there’s a much easier way to set it these days.
- On windows: tools -> options -> privacy -> passwords -> set master password
- On linux: edit -> preferences -> privacy -> passwords -> set master password
- On osx: firefox -> preferences -> privacy -> passwords -> set master password
No, i don’t understand why the windows and linux layouts are different. Osx at least has a decent reason for differing.
Comments»
On OSX, you go to File -> Preferences - Secrity, etc.
the sensitive information is only obscured, not encrypted on the local machine. I use ff master password, but I wish it had the “encrypt on local machine” feature that the mozilla browser has!
I am so happy to find this. I am running OS X.4.8. on G4 PowerbookI have installed Firefox more tan once and keep getting the unencrypted window. This scares me as the first time I installed Firefox I got a virus and crashed. Will this avoid that unencrypted window? Will I be safe using FF by doing this now? I really appreciate your time and your answer. Thanks so much.
K. Madison Moore
K. Madison, your problem probably was not a virus, nor a problem with the Software Security Device, but a bug (mistake) in the Firefox code. It is possible for a bug to reset your preferences back to how they were originally. And by default, Firefox warns you when you do things like switching from an unencrypted site to an encrypted one. Next time you see the “unencrypted window”, look to see whether it has a checkbox in it. If you change the checkbox setting, this may stop the window from pestering you again.
diamond, the Windows and Linux layouts are different for exactly the same reason as the Windows and Mac layouts are different: Firefox is following the platform interface guidelines (in this case the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines).
Hey, Thanks mpt. I did get it solved finally and just used FF to build my blog. http://kmadisonmoore.blogspot.com. This only happened because of nice people like you that are willing to help. What a nice site this is.
Thanks again everyone.
k. Madison
Hi again,
I must say I was so impressed with your last advise that now I’m back again. I hope you can solve this for me as well, or at least put me in the right direction. I have a blog-http://kmadisonmoore.blogspot.com. Now some people say that when they go to my blog it will say url not found. /another person said that when they clicked oon my hyperlink to see my blog, that didin’t work. Some people are leaving comments several times a day and I am not getting them? So I have three issues here…I think. I am so novice to hyperlinks and so forth. This si all so new to me. I would try to troublshgoot this issue myself, but I don’t know what the “issue” is?
Is there sanyone out there thst can look at it for me and tell me what might be wrong? Support at Blogger is really bad.
Any suggestions or advise you can give will be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
k. Madison Moore