Re: Is Keychain or any other program safe for storing sensitive data on a desktop Mac?

From	Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com>
Newsgroups	comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject	Re: Is Keychain or any other program safe for storing sensitive data on a desktop Mac?
Date	2018-11-11 22:38 +0000
Organization	People for the Ethical Treatment of Pirates
Message-ID	<g4rpabFjkdcU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	(6 earlier) <2018110911034357212-tomevans9890@yahoo.ca> <g4mpvmFftsaU2@mid.individual.net> <201811101952165115-tomevans9890@yahoo.ca> <g4r4stFes8tU3@mid.individual.net> <2018111114321828627-tomevans9890@yahoo.ca>

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On 2018-11-11, Tom Evans <tomevans9890@yahoo.ca> wrote:
> On 2018-11-11 16:49:33 +0000, Jolly Roger said:
>
>> On 2018-11-11, Tom Evans <tomevans9890@yahoo.ca> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I tried Keychain today, but it didn't work.  I even called it up with
>>> Spotlight prior to getting to a Web site where I was planning to
>>> register with that site, but when I got to the site's registration
>>> page, Keychain didn't open to ask me if I wanted to save my user name
>>> and passocode into Keychain for that site.
>> 
>> You're confused. That's not how it works. You don't have to open
>> Keychain Access when browsing the web for your computer to remember
>> passwords you enter on websites.
>
> I know that Keychain is supposed to open by itself while one is on a 
> passcode/username registration page, but I opened it anyway just in 
> case, because I'm new to using it.
>
>> It's hard to imagine anyone using Macs for any length of time without
>> seeing at least one Safari dialog asking if you want to save a password.
>
> I've seen that pop-up window many times, but this time it didn't 
> appear.  When it appears, it gives me the option to save in keychain 
> and "not now" or "never' or something like that.
>
> My standard browser is Chrome.  Could that be an obstacle?

Keychain is integrated with Safari. Other browsers use their own often
less secure password storage mechanisms. Chrome is a crappy browser
choice anyway, IMO. It's a RAM and CPU hog, and has been known to gobble
disk space as well by storing update packages indefinitely.

>> How sure are you that the information wasn't saved in Keychain? Did you
>> open Keychain Access and search for the website in question to see if
>> there are any passwords saved for it?
>
> Good point,  I just checked.  I did find in Keychain > Local Items 
> folder, the Web site's URL, followed by "Passwords not saved").
>
> I checked in all of Keychains folders by "Date Modified" but couldn't 
> see any other informatin that related to this Web site.

That's because you weren't using Safari.

>> Some websites (especially banking websites) are written to prevent
>> password managers from saving passwords.
>> 
>> Which website are you referring to specifically?
>
> I don't want to reveal that, so as no to give too much information 
> about myself to attacker/hackers from the newsgroups.  It's sufficient 
> to explain that the Web site stores my lab test health reports, which 
> are linked to my pharmacy.

Medical websites also often try to prevent password saving measures.

-- 
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I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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