Firefox's Saved Passwords

[Bill Perkins]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Bill Perkins wrote:
>> Looks like the format has changed, but the hash used may be combined
>> with that funky xxxxxxxx.default directory everything lands in, which is
>> combined with profiles.ini... what a mess! I suppose there are good
>> reasons to be doing things this way... maybe if I take the old
>> profiles.ini, and the old .default directory name, and plunk them into
>> .mozilla/firefox/, I can get everything back. Apparently, when I fired
>> up firefox 1.5.0.1, _something_ got changed in the profile directory
>> which causes a panic in firefox 1.0.7
>>
> The first time you ran 1.5.0.1, it probably upgraded the file to the
> new format. When you go back to 1.0.7 it has a problem with the new
> format. This is just a guess, but it is fairly normal procedure when
> upgrading. That is why it is usually a good idea to back things up
> before doing an upgrade.

Format seems to be the same, just encrypted slightly differently.

> As for not being able to just grab the old password file, and plunk
> it into a new directory, and have it work, I consider that a good
> thing. You should have to restore the entire configuration. It makes
> it harder for someone to grab my password file and use it. (Having
> a master password set is also a good idea...) This is especially
> true because the password file is not a one-way hash, so you can get
> the original password out of it. (Necessary because of the way the
> passwords are used - you have to send the original password, not a
> hash of it.)
> 
> Mikkel

Good point! Didn't think of that, myself. Fortunately, nothing major was 
lost, and I can always change passwords at the sites where I use them.

-- 
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"The two most common things in the	| Bill Perkins
  universe are Hydrogen and Stupidity."	| perk at iag.net
					| programmer-at-large
		F. Zappa		| ALL assembly languages done here.
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