want to make my Primary Password secure
I recently switched over to Firefox as my main browser in place of Chrome. What really won me over was the Primary Password feature, so that my saved passwords will be safe. But I'm a little confused: When I open Firefox, the dialog box comes up asking me for my Primary Password. As soon as I type the first two characters of my password, the browser is totally unlocked. I can either type in the rest of my password at that point and press Enter, or I can just press the Cancel button. Either way it only needs the first two characters of my password to unlock Firefox. That doesn't seem very secure. Is there any way to set it to require my entire password?
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Firefox by itself doesn't need password to use the Browser. Where are you seeing this Primary password setting at? The only time a password is needed is on sync settings. If you really want to protect your computer is to set a Windows user password for the Admin Account and a separate one for standard user account to lockup unwanted users to access the computer. That is a far better securing the password login so only the user can access the computer.
Browsers store my passwords, but they are stored without encryption. Firefox does encrypt them if I enable Primary Password protection, as I understand. It is separate from Synchronization, and I use a different password for that.
Yes, of course I have a password log in to the computer. I use Linux, and in addition to the user login I used to also set a keyring password that restricted access to the browser. But those solutions do not encrypt what's on my hard drive, as far as I know. I don't want someone to get access to all my browser passwords if they steal my computer. Firefox's Primary Password protection is supposed to do that, but as far as I can tell it's not really working.
Is it possible that you made an error when creating the password? Try changing it in Settings > Privacy > Logins and passwords : Change primary password (a button).
Hi Terry,
Thank you. I tried that now. I changed my password several times. But Firefox still does not really require a password when I start the program.
Yesterday I also saw that I had an update waiting and I let Firefox update. Today I also discovered that I don't even have to type the first two characters of my password. All I have to do is wait a few seconds and Firefox unlocks by itself. I can then just cancel out of the password dialog box and get to work.
Yesterday Firefox did prompt me one time for my password, and would not let me use a saved login for one website until I typed the whole password. But only that one time, for one website.
I'm a little confused. This security feature was my reason for switching to Firefox, and it apparently it doesn't even work.
But just now I tried going to look at my saved passwords and Firefox required my full password to enter that section, and then once again in order to display a password. I guess maybe that's where the security really is, and that's the most important part.
The Primary Password is only used to unlock the passwords stored in the Password Manager and is used locally (not part of Sync) and is profile specific. It doesn't block access to Firefox, so canceling the PP prompt merely blocks access to the logins: if you open the Password Manager (about:logins page) then you will be prompted to enter the PP.
I guess that sort of makes sense. But I'm confused by the fact that this password dialog box always pops up when I open Firefox, but it will just let me cancel and ignore it. That makes me feel like it's not really doing its job. But I apparently I can ignore it only up to a point, because it will demand a password once I try to log in somewhere or manage my passwords.
The local Primary Password protects your logins, including your Firefox Account which will try to sync on startup which is why you get prompted.
your Firefox Account is trying to sync a few seconds after browser start, but to do so it needs Primary Password.
Okay, thanks. I think it's clear enough now. Hopefully Mozilla will make this a little more clear in the future, through the instructions or the dialog box.