Author Topic: Master Pwd no longer being requested  (Read 6008 times)

airhead

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« on: April 14, 2006, 06:44:29 PM »
After upgrading, when I open PWM it no longer requires entry of the Master Password before giving access to all of my accounts.

Have I accidentally set some kind of preference? I can't find anything that would have caused this. The "store" option  has always been set to Memory and it shows as such on opening PWM.

It has a little message: "Generated Password: enter a master password." But entering one is not required to look at each account's full details including passwords. Nor is it needed to populate the login-pwd fields of sites.

Previously, the first time I opened or ran PWM I was required to enter the master password which was stored to memory for the duration of the browser session.

I'm a little nervous at the different behaviour, but suspect it's something my blondeness is just missing.

Some reassurance would be appreciated.

Offline Miquel 'Fire' Burns

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2006, 07:10:18 PM »
Double check to make sure it's not storing it to disk. Maybe you set that by mistake?

Otherwise, you might have came across a bug, or Firefox is not closing like it should.
"I'm not drunk, just sleep deprived."

Offline tanstaafl

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2006, 07:28:56 PM »
??

Was this ever working?

I dont recall every having to enter my MPW to access my accounts. I thought this was still a FR, as Encrypt Passwordmaker.rdf?

airhead

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2006, 08:01:14 PM »
Quote from: tanstaafl
??

Was this ever working?

I dont recall every having to enter my MPW to access my accounts. I thought this was still a FR, as Encrypt Passwordmaker.rdf?

I'm maybe not being clear: the master password, as things are now on my system, serves no purpose. It is never requested.

Previously, when I first opened PWM, I was asked for my master password. Now I am never asked for it. The extension operates as if it does not care if there is a MP or not.

I do not know how to determine if in the past I inadvertently set it to store to disk. There is passwordmaker.rdf file in my profiles folder, but deleting it deletes all my stored accounts, so I restored it.

In the settings, I reentered the MP and selected "Not at all" for the Store pw option. This had no effect.

I feel now I have to go through the exercise of copying all of the settings for each account into Word (I have 22 of them including two banks, three credit cards, paypal, eBay and so very serious to me). One of the big advantages of PWM becomes an irritant in this process. Using the special Alt characters to harden the passwords means you cannot copy the passwords into normal text editors since they don't understant those extended chars. But it is maybe a lesson not become dependent on a single tool to manage such important stuff. But having them all duplicated is a bad idea too. I can't seem to win on this "safe computing" stuff.


Offline tanstaafl

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2006, 08:47:26 PM »
Quote from: airhead
I'm maybe not being clear: the master password, as things are now on my system, serves no purpose. It is never requested.
It should only be requested (prompted for) when you go to a login page for a site, and invoke PWM, either through the Coolkey, or throught the right-click menu in the password field - or, if you have the 'Auto-populate' option enabled, as soon as you navigate to the login page.

Quote
Previously, when I first opened PWM, I was asked for my master password. Now I am never asked for it. The extension operates as if it does not care if there is a MP or not.
I think possibly you misunderstand how PWM works...

What do you mean by 'Open PWM'? If you just open it, then you are either presented with the Basic Options or the Advanced Options. The Basic Options are what you see the first time you open it, but if you change to the Advanced Options, it remembers this the next time you open it. Either way, both of these windows have he Master Password field on them, but this isn't really a 'Prompt' per say, and entering the password here will not do anything.

Have you read the manual? How long have you been using it? What was the first version that you used?

Quote
I do not know how to determine if in the past I inadvertently set it to store to disk. There is passwordmaker.rdf file in my profiles folder, but deleting it deletes all my stored accounts, so I restored it.
There is no way to determine if you inadvertantly set it to save to disk in the past, and yes, all of your accounts are stored in the PAsswordmaker.rdf file. This makes it very easy to migrate all of your PWM accounts to a new computer, and even share them between computers, either manually, or using the very convenient FTP upload/download function. The MPW is also stored (encrypted) in the rdf file, if you have this option enabled.

Quote
In the settings, I reentered the MP and selected "Not at all" for the Store pw option. This had no effect.
Not by itself, no - again, I think you are misunderstanding how PWM works. I hope you will bear with me, and see if I can help you figure out what you are missing...

Quote
I feel now I have to go through the exercise of copying all of the settings for each account into Word (I have 22 of them including two banks, three credit cards, paypal, eBay and so very serious to me). One of the big advantages of PWM becomes an irritant in this process. Using the special Alt characters to harden the passwords means you cannot copy the passwords into normal text editors since they don't understant those extended chars. But it is maybe a lesson not become dependent on a single tool to manage such important stuff. But having them all duplicated is a bad idea too. I can't seem to win on this "safe computing" stuff.
As I said - this is completely unnecessary - unless you just want to give up. Otherwise, I am happy to try to help you figure out where you are going wrong.

Offline Eric H. Jung

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2006, 05:28:23 AM »
Quote
I feel now I have to go through the exercise of copying all of the settings for each account into Word
Don't do that! Print the settings or export them to HTML instead.

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Master Pwd no longer being requested
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2006, 05:28:23 AM »