[Macworld]

Post your comments for How to manage passwords with Keychain Access here

[PrachiGauriar]

I created a second keychain called “Sensitive” where I store my passwords for banks, credit cards, shopping sites, etc. It uses a completely different (and more secure) password than my login keychain and automatically locks after five minutes of inactivity. No apps are allowed to access the passwords except for Keychain Access. When I need to go to my banking website, I:

1. Launch Keychain Access and select the Sensitive keychain.

2. Select the Keychain item for my banking site.

3. Hit shift-command-C (Copy Password to Clipboard).

4. Type in my Sensitive keychain password.

5. Switch to Safari (or whatever) and paste the password.

It takes almost no time whatsoever and allows me to have really secure (very long, generated by Keychain Access) passwords that I don’t have to remember.

This post has been edited by PrachiGauriar: 15 November 2012 - 06:39 AM

[redgeminipa]

Is there a way to force autofill for login keychain items for websites? Either AutoFill isn't working as well under Mountain Lion (or latest Safari), or websites are somehow blocking autofill user and passwords, and it's a coincidence since ML came along.

I'm not sure which it is, but FireFox doesn't have a problem with a particular website that I'm having trouble with under Safari.

[mzgupta]

Dear Sir
I use OS X 10.6.8 on macbook pro. My chrome is Version 23.0.1271.64
an Safari is Version 5.1.7 (6534.57.2).
Keychain Access works fine with some sites however some secured sites do not allow "Paste and Match style" and thus I am forced to type the passwords etc for these sites. What is the remedy.
Regaeds
MG

[ptesterman]

syncing keychains was one of the big omissions when apple decide to switch from mobileme to icloud. I still don't understand why they dropped it when they push is to unify everything across multiple devices.

You can manually copy the keychain file as described above, but it won't update or sync, so it's still not much help. I grudgingly went to 1password. It is a good program that lets you sync your password file and integrate with safari, but it's also kind of pricey.

[Droid]

Quote

syncing keychains was one of the big omissions when apple decide to switch from mobileme to icloud. I still don't understand why they dropped it when they push is to unify everything across multiple devices. You can manually copy the keychain file as described above, but it won't update or sync, so it's still not much help. I grudgingly went to 1password. It is a good program that lets you sync your password file and integrate with safari, but it's also kind of pricey.

It's unfortunate Apple chose to abandon that feature & keychain access never made it over to iOS, it was really helpful to have the same passwords everywhere you used the MobileMe account.
It just seems to be something Apple don't want to do, they'd rather make shredder animations for passbook I guess.

It's a pain but I think we have to give up waiting for Apple & place our trust (& cash) in 1Password & syncing via Dropbox. The very idea of passwords stored in Dropbox gives me chills, even with the encryption.

I know a company that keeps unencrypted PDF's of other peoples network account passwords in Dropbox & thinks that is ok, sheer madness.

[marek]

Quote

Is there a way to force autofill for login keychain items for websites? Either AutoFill isn't working as well under Mountain Lion (or latest Safari), or websites are somehow blocking autofill user and passwords, and it's a coincidence since ML came along. I'm not sure which it is, but FireFox doesn't have a problem with a particular website that I'm having trouble with under Safari.

Here is your answer: http://lapcatsoftwar...n-autocomplete/

[desertratr]

Is there any way to set up Keychain to autolock, but have it automatically unlock when I enter my account PW to awaken my sleeping Mac?

[geochase]

Quote

Dear Sir I use OS X 10.6.8 on macbook pro. My chrome is Version 23.0.1271.64 an Safari is Version 5.1.7 (6534.57.2). Keychain Access works fine with some sites however some secured sites do not allow "Paste and Match style" and thus I am forced to type the passwords etc for these sites. What is the remedy. Regaeds MG

I use 1Password, solves the problem.

[sensel]

What about certificates? I find them very confusing. I have no desire to know more about them but, when they expire (whatever that means) they become a nuisance in Mail. Why can’t Apple have some kind of option that, if a certificate is bad or expired, it says “Hey, that’s no good. Want me to fetch you a new one and trash that old one so it is no longer a problem?”

Also, I’ve had to change passwords and login names a few times over the years. But, I am not sure which are “working” and which are old ones that I can toss. I wish Keychain was smarter and could tell, this has not been used in over a year, and move those old things to a dead area. Then, after two years (or whatever the user chooses) trashes them (with an explanation a non engineer can understand in a yes or no dialog box just as it is about to do it).

KeyChain may be this hand thing but it is the most user unfriendly thing that most users rarely work with. But neglected or certificate overrun, becomes a mess and a nuisance.

[macDG]

Ahhh... Great Tip (NOT!)

After locking my MacBook Keychain I only get requests to authenticate about every 3 minutes. That is a great way to enhance our workflows.

If that is what is required to be secure, perhaps I'll just leave the laptop at home...

[Chris Breen]

 macDG, on 19 November 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

Ahhh... Great Tip (NOT!)

After locking my MacBook Keychain I only get requests to authenticate about every 3 minutes. That is a great way to enhance our workflows.

If that is what is required to be secure, perhaps I'll just leave the laptop at home...

What did you suppose would happen when you locked your keychain?

[Droid]

Quote

Ahhh... Great Tip (NOT!) After locking my MacBook Keychain I only get requests to authenticate about every 3 minutes. That is a great way to enhance our workflows. If that is what is required to be secure, perhaps I'll just leave the laptop at home...

You could always think your way around the issue; set the keychain to lock on sleep, maybe give it another password that is different to the login one (so you have to unlock it at the start of a session).
It's a little more secure but a little less invasive.

You can also move the critical passwords to a new keychain & keep the login keychain unlocked & use that for the least important passwords.

Or you could just leave the laptop at home…


P.S.
Chris, the hair seemed to have fallen off your icon - I fixed it for ya.
-> https://dl.dropbox.c...660/HairFix.jpg

[Chris Breen]

 Droid, on 21 November 2012 - 05:09 PM, said:

Chris, the hair seemed to have fallen off your icon - I fixed it for ya.
-> https://dl.dropbox.c...660/HairFix.jpg

How do I look?