Mozilla is bringing snooping protection to its Password Manager Firefox Lockwise in Firefox 76, where it will ask you to enter Operating System -Windows/Mac – login password to reveal the password saved to the browser if you’ve not set a master password. The Firefox maker needs to solve an issue for this feature where the user won’t be able to see or copy the password if he uses an empty password for the OS account.
Most browsers including Google Chrome and Firefox save website login usernames and passwords and autofill the credentials when you visit those websites next time. In Chrome, if you visit Chrome://settings/passwords page and try to view a password, as a security measure to prevent others from seeing passwords on your device, you’ll be asked to type Windows password by showing dialog with message: “Google Chrome is trying to show passwords. Type your password to allow this”.
The way not to get this for seeing passwords in Chrome is to remove the password from the Windows account.
Note: Chrome, when compared with Firefox doesn’t support master password, Google has a reason for this where they believe if your device falls in the wrong hands, even the master password can’t save you from that situation.
Read: Why Google doesn’t offer Master Password in Chrome Browser?
Firefox 76 in Nightly now also triggers Operating system authentication dialog if you try to copy or edit or see a password for a website in the login manager lockwise if you haven’t set a master password. Firefox asks to “verify your identity to reveal your [Windows] password”.
The annoying thing is you’ll encounter this dialog every time when you attempt to view a password on about: logins page. If you use a master password, you’ won’t be prompted to input Windows password, so the simple way to get around this is to create a master password.
UPDATE April 27, 2020: Mozilla has added this to Firefox 76 release notes to inform the user that ” Accessing saved passwords in about: logins on Windows and macOS now requires the user to authenticate with their operating system if no master password is set”.
Related articles:
Chrome to Prompt for Windows Password to Show Saved Passwords in It
Google brings Password Checkup feature to Chrome Settings
I thought my WIndows got broken. Thank for this useful info. I managed to get through that pop-up and see my passwords. IMO this is too much. Firefox should add “don’t ask for Windows password from now on” feature.
Create a master password then. FYI, Chrome and Edge Chromium without master password support asks to enter windows/Mac password to see passwords.
If the user is using fingerprint as an authentication mechanism, Firefox is not able to recognize it. There should be an option for the user to choose whether they wish to have this level of Security. Imposing it is not a great idea especially if it is a new feature. I critically needed to access a saved password to access it on a different browser and I am stuck now !!