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Firefox password protection

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  • Balasan terakhir oleh cor-el

StPete
StPete
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Hello,

I set a password for opening Firefox (Windows) and every time I opened FF I was prompted to enter my password. This was true in either privacy browsing or normal mode. Today for some reason I hit the cancel button and FF opened up normally to my default settings.

This was surprising to me. And I tried to find specific settings to ensure FF will not open unless you enter a pw.

Could not. So what good is a pw? And of course there is always the - I don't know what I'm doing to configure FF correctly.

This represents a failure in that a password setting is misleading, leading a user to believe that they have secured access to FF. If you can select cancel and FF opens this is a real issue.

On the other hand, if FF password was never designed to protect FF then this should be stated.

I strongly urge that Mozilla FF look at having the ability to create a PW protected, selectable -> unsynced or synced, version of FF that is stored in a protected form.

I am looking for a browser that is PW protected on top of your normal OS login. And that the URLs stored in that browser are encrypted. This offers an additional layer of protection for users who keep financial, health, etc., sensitive URLs that need to be kept private, not shared if so desired.

Hello, I set a password for opening Firefox (Windows) and every time I opened FF I was prompted to enter my password. This was true in either privacy browsing or normal mode. Today for some reason I hit the cancel button and FF opened up normally to my default settings. This was surprising to me. And I tried to find specific settings to ensure FF will not open unless you enter a pw. Could not. So what good is a pw? And of course there is always the - I don't know what I'm doing to configure FF correctly. This represents a failure in that a password setting is misleading, leading a user to believe that they have secured access to FF. If you can select cancel and FF opens this is a real issue. On the other hand, if FF password was never designed to protect FF then this should be stated. I strongly urge that Mozilla FF look at having the ability to create a PW protected, selectable -> unsynced or synced, version of FF that is stored in a protected form. I am looking for a browser that is PW protected on top of your normal OS login. And that the URLs stored in that browser are encrypted. This offers an additional layer of protection for users who keep financial, health, etc., sensitive URLs that need to be kept private, not shared if so desired.

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The Primary Password is not a security measure but is only used to unlock the logins stored in the Password Manager (about:logins), it doesn't block access to Firefox, so do not get confused. Canceling the Primary Password merely blocks access to the logins, but otherwise Firefox will work normally.

Using Sync is a possible reason to ask for the Primary Password at startup. This is because the credentials to login to the Sync account are stored in the Password Manager and you need to enter the Primary Password to unlock the passwords and connect/login to the Sync account. If you cancel the PP prompt then Firefox won't be able to reconnect to Sync, but otherwise will work normally.