The main reason that I switched from Firefox to Camino was because I didn't like that Firefox uses it's own password database. This seemed like a waste, since Mac OS X's keychain provides a system wide mechanism to store passwords. This would allow a stored password to be used by different passwords applications.
Since Firefox gets the security fixes faster then Camino, I really want to switch back to Firefox. I was actually thinking of writing an extension that would hook into Firefox password code, and store the password in the Keychain.
I saw this post, that describes 1Passwd, a new extension for Firefox and Safari, that will store passwords in the keychain, and will auto fill in forms with this information. (I don't know why this is necessary for Safari, since Safari already stores in the keychain.)
I don't think that I am going to use this extension. It doesn't store the password in the standard keychain. It creates a 1Passwd keychain, to store the passwords. This means that passwords will not be shared between different clients.
[via TUAW]
Hi Paul,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to post about 1Passwd. I agree with you that Camino is a top-notch browser; we plan on adding Camino support in the future (in V1.1, if possible).
You asked why we needed a Safari extension. The reason 1Passwd is needed is because the AutoFill of Safari does not go far enough for most user's needs (i.e. only one saved form per page), and it only works in Safari (obviously). Our goal is to provide the best Password Manager and Form Filler that works *seamlessly* across browsers, without ever needing to manually transfer passwords or saved forms back-and-forth.
Your second question was about why we create our own keychain instead of using the default login keychain. By using our own keychain, it is easier to keep track of "who owns what". You see, even if we used the default keychain, we could not use the exact same format as Safari, so we would be forced to create "duplicate" entries anyway. Instead, we create our own keychain entry and allow you to import your Safari passwords with one click (import works for Firefox and RoboForm too).
I hope this casts some light on the problems 1Passwd is solving. I will be writing a blog post about how 1Passwd extends Safari later this week, I will post a link here when it's done.
Thanks again Paul,
--David Teare
Co-author of 1Passwd.