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Firefox Lockbox

testpilot.firefox.com

131–140 of 156 posts

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#131

This is interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. However, it's very unlikely to replace Bitwarden for me.

There is a surprising lack of unit tests in Bitwarden, which is mostly maintained by one person. If Mozilla can apply its rigorous engineering practices to maintaining an open source password manager with all the features I use, I will switch from my current system.

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different definitions, I guess. I call it proprietary because it's: - Unique to Mozilla products. Invented there (disregarding any existing solutions of the same problem) and no one else uses this. - Based on Accounts and Sync I believe this is not a standard at all, just something that happens to be documented. With FxA&Sync there are a lot of undocumented subtleties and things sometimes change at whim without any w…

They are on day one, sure, but if the file format is documented and clear then there's no reason why other managers couldn't interoperate. It's not as good as using an existing standard, but I'm not sure there is _an_ existing standard right now.

> I'm not sure there is _an_ existing standard right now

I think there is none, except for the OS-provided APIs (but those have complications of their own, e.g. Chrome had dropped Apple Keychain support for a reason).

> there's no reason why other managers couldn't interoperate

Why would they? I don't think anyone was invited to this party. And I find it highly unlikely someone will bother to interoperate beyond implementing an importer tool, because it's likely that no one wants to spend resources on alternative implementations just to be in dependent always-catching-up position.

Seriously, I absolutely don't see how this could become a standard. I've called it proprietary not to badmouth it, but because it is Mozilla's own, unique stuff and is very much likely to remain so.

I believe if someone wants to devise a standard for something, they call for everyone having their in-house implementations, asking if they want to interoperate. Many won't bother, but some may like the idea. Then, a specification is written, and conforming implementations follow.

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#133
On problem with password managers (that are using web authentication to create/manage an account for backing up the password manager in the cloud) is that the authentication password can be leaked during the authentication process. For example, the storage provider for password manager backup can simply read the password from the authentication web page since this web page is hosted at the provider. This is problematic if the authentication password is also used to encrypt the password manager, i.e. the provider could decrypt the password manager with the authentication password. You would actually need two passwords; one for authentication and one for encryption. Unfortunately, you usually don't even have the option to choose two passwords.

To solve this problem I'm working on FejoaAuth (https://fejoa.org/fejoapage/auth.html). FejoaAuth uses an authentication protocol that does not leak the user password to the provider who is going to store the password manager. This protocol is run in a trusted browser plugin in order to ensure the correct execution of the protocol. Thus you can use a single password for authentication and password manager encryption.

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#134

I'm disappointed. Instead of making password management modular, so any password manager capable of certain queries and operations (KeePass, LastPass, Bitwarden, KWallet/Gnome Keyring/libsecret, Microsoft Credentials Management API, Apple Keychain, etc) could become a storage backend with some programming effort... they're doing the exact opposite - they've created yet another password manager UI and yet another prop…

While a lot of Mozilla's work is great, this seems to be the tendency of every "Test Pilot" project I've seen; NiH and always a reimplementation of ideas there are plenty of alternatives for already, without much consideration for learning from/interop with those alternatives. It's a bit odd: it all seems quite separate and "distant" from the core work I expect from Mozilla.

I think someone in their management has/had a vision of Mozilla as an ecosystem brand, just like Google or Apple. They must've felt big enough to pull it, providing users with all things Firefox (think of Firefox Account).

They hadn't succeeded and had cancelled Firefox OS, but at least the inertia is still there, if not the continued effort to push in that direction.

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firebox Lockfox? Firelock Boxfox? Lockfire Foxbox? Ugh, we tried them all, I swear..

Just plain old Lockfox. However, I understand you probably have some branding/marketing/PR concerns to keep in mind with naming.

Lockfox sounds like something that breaks or works around locks to me, fox being a sneacky tricky animal; not really reassuring.

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#137

Has anyone done a thoughtful comparison of PW managers? I moved on from keepass because it was a huge hassle to use, but LastPass and 1password both have some detractors as well.

I have in the past, but not written it down. My criterion was:

- FOSS (totally indispensable)

- Offline (totally indispensable, data you put on others' servers is not yours anymore)

- Can be used from the CLI as well as some interface

- Can be synced to Android

With this, you have 2 options: pass, or keepass. The latter is a bit confusing, w/ many apps around one format and it's hard to know which one to use. Also the file format is proprietary, which means it's harder to use from scripts.

pass on the other hand uses the filesystem, gpg and git, which are tools I always have around and know how to use. It's totally FOSS and totally local (Keepass is like this too), it's version controlled by default, can use it on android w/ Password Manager and OpenPGP apps (available from both the play store as well as FDroid), and it's easy to script (I've written my own Emacs fronted in no time), and while there are many third party frontend apps, there is one program that's blessed by the community as the default one, which is the pass(1) cli.

One criticism on pass is that it leaks metadata because the file names usually contain the website domains. I think that's a non issue because usernames and websites are already known by many other parties (the website itself, and millions of people if it's sth like a social network), and we should not rely on hiding public information for security. Use long passwords and 2FA where available. But encrypting your hard drive would be more secure in the first place anyways.

edit: formatting

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#138
post #120
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you see it's missing a maintainer? I agree, using gpg on yubikey for password encryption is ideal. My only problem with it is that nobody makes money, so who is maintaining it?

Capitalism continues to wow the masses

Don't get me wrong I would pay... But there is no attempt to make money from this.

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#139
post #80

I installed it and will compare it to Lastpass (which is pretty good IMO). HOWEVER, it saddens me to read on the front page: "using 256-bit encryption". I'd really expect the competent people at Mozilla to know that this statement means next to nothing. At the very minimum I want to know: 1) HOW is the key derived (say, "derived used PBKDF2 on the Firefox username + password") 2) WHERE is it encrypted (I assume "encr…

I, too, want to know the implementaion details. That said I’ve watched hundred of eyes gloss over as I emphatically implored lay-persons about password policies and tools like password managers and Frankly their definition of ‘secure’ can be encapsulated in ‘256-bit encryption’. An oversight on Mozilla’s part for security-types and engineers, but maybe they have the masses in mind with this tool & it’s marketing site…

Do the masses have any idea of what "256-bit encryption" would mean anyway?

Re: Firefox Lockbox

#140
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The language we have today is the balance marketing, security reviewers, and engineering could reach for the masses to feel informed without being overwhelmed and confused. It would be fantastic to have a 'more details' page, where the nitty-gritty is detailed for those who care.

Thanks for this, and wanting to know more! We're working on expanding our docs to add this.

Maybe also compare this service with other cloud password managers. It's not easy to understands the pros and cons of each of them. Is this a better service than existing managers and if so, in what way?
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