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Will Saved Password Editor ever work again?

  • 11 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by tagged63

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The Saved Password Editor (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/saved-password-editor/) was an excellent extension and highly useful extension, rendered inoperative by Quantum. While some people may think that this extension is no longer needed because of the built-in editor (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1186297) this is incorrect for a number of reasons:

  • Some website don't capture the login information and there is no way to manually enter the information: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1234322. Editing some json file is a ridiculous suggestion.
  • It annoying to navigate to the built-in editor and recently FF moved the "saved logins..." button down about:preferences#privacy so you now have to scroll in addition to clicking. Note: bookmarking chrome://passwordmgr/content/passwordManager.xul is handy, but doesn't solve the other problems.
  • The built-in editor does not allow editing the website URL or duplicating a login.
  • All of this make it impossible to use the built-in password editor to save things like PINs or answers to secret questions, all of which was very easy with the Saved Password Editor extension.

So will Firefox ever enable the Saved Password Editor to work again? The add-on page says that the extension needs a WebExtensions API. Will Firefox ever have one of those again? If the functionality was added into the build-in password manager, that would be good, too. Thank you.

The Saved Password Editor (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/saved-password-editor/) was an excellent extension and highly useful extension, rendered inoperative by Quantum. While some people may think that this extension is no longer needed because of the built-in editor (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1186297) this is incorrect for a number of reasons: * Some website don't capture the login information and there is no way to manually enter the information: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1234322. Editing some json file is a ridiculous suggestion. * It annoying to navigate to the built-in editor and recently FF moved the "saved logins..." button down about:preferences#privacy so you now have to scroll in addition to clicking. Note: bookmarking chrome://passwordmgr/content/passwordManager.xul is handy, but doesn't solve the other problems. * The built-in editor does not allow editing the website URL or duplicating a login. * All of this make it impossible to use the built-in password editor to save things like PINs or answers to secret questions, all of which was very easy with the Saved Password Editor extension. So will Firefox ever enable the Saved Password Editor to work again? The add-on page says that the extension needs a WebExtensions API. Will Firefox ever have one of those again? If the functionality was added into the build-in password manager, that would be good, too. Thank you.

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mcramer said

cor-el said
This extension isn't working because the APIs it required aren't available for WebExtensions at the moment.

Thank you. Is this ever going to happen?

I suspect all the browser makers are understandably worried about letting extensions access stored logins, and the very sensitive data you mentioned putting in the file. I would not expect to see this in a hurry.

mcramer said

  • It annoying to navigate to the built-in editor and recently FF moved the "saved logins..." button down about:preferences#privacy so you now have to scroll in addition to clicking. Note: bookmarking chrome://passwordmgr/content/passwordManager.xul is handy, but doesn't solve the other problems.

If you are a keyboard oriented person, typing log or pas in the search box at the top of the Options page (the cursor is in there by default) will pull the button up into view. But I can appreciate that the matched highlights are a bit distracting.

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mcramer said

Will Saved Password Editor ever work again?

Someone will have to re-write the program so it is compatible with the current browser. That is why I am still using v54.

I don't want to lose the add-ons I have. While some have been re-written or replaced, not all of them have that option.

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Quote: Will Saved Password Editor ever work again?

This extension isn't working because the APIs it required aren't available for WebExtensions at the moment. If WebExtension APIs to provide these features would be added to Firefox then it will be possible to convert SPE to a WebExtension.

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cor-el said

Quote: Will Saved Password Editor ever work again? This extension isn't working because the APIs it required aren't available for WebExtensions at the moment. If WebExtension APIs to provide these features would be added to Firefox then it will be possible to convert SPE to a WebExtension.

Thank you. Is this ever going to happen?

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You can always install keepass that will not be addon but will keep your passwords.

https://keepass.info/

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Chosen Solution

mcramer said

cor-el said
This extension isn't working because the APIs it required aren't available for WebExtensions at the moment.

Thank you. Is this ever going to happen?

I suspect all the browser makers are understandably worried about letting extensions access stored logins, and the very sensitive data you mentioned putting in the file. I would not expect to see this in a hurry.

mcramer said

  • It annoying to navigate to the built-in editor and recently FF moved the "saved logins..." button down about:preferences#privacy so you now have to scroll in addition to clicking. Note: bookmarking chrome://passwordmgr/content/passwordManager.xul is handy, but doesn't solve the other problems.

If you are a keyboard oriented person, typing log or pas in the search box at the top of the Options page (the cursor is in there by default) will pull the button up into view. But I can appreciate that the matched highlights are a bit distracting.

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jscher2000 said

mcramer said
cor-el said
This extension isn't working because the APIs it required aren't available for WebExtensions at the moment.

Thank you. Is this ever going to happen?

I suspect all the browser makers are understandably worried about letting extensions access stored logins, and the very sensitive data you mentioned putting in the file. I would not expect to see this in a hurry.

This is a really good point. I really don't want to have to go to a 3rd-party solution (I appreciate the Keepass.info suggestion, however), so it'd be nice if Firefox just did the following:

  • Enable editing the URL (in addition to the username and password)
  • Enable creating duplicate logins

With those two I think everyone would be good to go.

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mcramer said

This is a really good point. I really don't want to have to go to a 3rd-party solution (I appreciate the Keepass.info suggestion, however), so it'd be nice if Firefox just did the following:
  • Enable editing the URL (in addition to the username and password)
  • Enable creating duplicate logins
With those two I think everyone would be good to go.

Well as Browser start to protect their themselves more and more you will have to make some hard choices. For me something like that isn't a safe process. The keepass program I use is password protected and it can open the url in any browser and then I can fill in the login. And it keeps a history of the changes so should you forget it can reverse the changes. I use it because my logins have outgrown sticky notes and needed safe way to save them and keepass provided that along with a USB version I can use at work and sync both password files.

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WestEnd said

mcramer said
This is a really good point. I really don't want to have to go to a 3rd-party solution (I appreciate the Keepass.info suggestion, however), so it'd be nice if Firefox just did the following:
  • Enable editing the URL (in addition to the username and password)
  • Enable creating duplicate logins
With those two I think everyone would be good to go.

Well as Browser start to protect their themselves more and more you will have to make some hard choices. For me something like that isn't a safe process. The keepass program I use is password protected and it can open the url in any browser and then I can fill in the login.

No system is 100% but I prefer the built-in password manager compared to a 3rd-party application, even if it is open-source. Software like LastPass and others frequently have vulnerabilities, although perhaps Keepass is better. I have more trust in Mozilla, however. Also, you can password protect the built-in manager if you like, as you probably know. A multi-browser solution is nice, however.

That being said, if everyone could just get the two features above, which should be really easy to implement, I think we'd all be good to go. Just my $0.02.

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I am the complete opposite if your Browser becomes malware infested consider it lost. That is the problem most forgets. So unless I login to my password program it has no access to my passwords. But as you said you can password protect it but if you login during that time which most do then open. And let's say you wipe clean your computer or delete all firefox and folder where are you passwords now if not in sync fashion. Keepass works for all browser as it opens the url in them to the login and I just Perform Auto-Type and it enters the login.

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Note that you can easily import a new username and password in the Password Manager. The only problem is guessing the other parameters like the submit URL and the names of the login and password field. You would have to use the Inspector to find the values of these parameters.

You basically need this data (httpRealm is only required for basic authentication (FTP); formSubmitURL can be empty in some cases).

[{
  "hostname": "<URL(domain)>",
  "formSubmitURL": "<submitURL>",
  "httpRealm": null,
  "username": "",
  "usernameField": "",
  "password": "",
  "passwordField": ""
 }]

You can use this code in the Browser Console to import multiple password data in JSON format: [{}] or [{},{},{}] This code works for Firefox 60+. The code run asynchronously, so it can take some time for items to show in the Password Manager if you would import a lot.

Make sure to create a backup of logins.json and key4.db.


newSG=prompt("Logins: [JSON]","[]");
newSG=JSON.parse(newSG);
ChromeUtils.import("resource://gre/modules/LoginHelper.jsm");
LoginHelper.maybeImportLogins(newSG);

See this forum post for code to export all current passwords in JSON format to see how this login data is formatted. The above posted code can import (merge) this JSON code in the Password Manager.

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This screws me. I save all my passwords within firefox since I am unable to remember them all. Now that option is gone. Seems like a lot fo the features that firefox used to have are slowly going away. This is the only browser i have ever used and now it seems like its not worth it