Re: FireFox password management

On 1/18/2022 11:56 PM, Robert Baer wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> On 1/17/2022 1:10 AM, Robert Baer wrote:
>>> Paul wrote:
>>>> On 1/16/2022 7:51 PM, Robert Baer wrote:
>>>>>    See no way to do that in FF 96.0.
>>>>>    Follow Mozilla instructions and do NOT get the expected list of
>>>>> prog name, user name, password.
>>>>>    So, how in the heck can do any password management?
>>>>>
>>>>>     Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> Do you mean, instructions like this ?
>>>>
>>>> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/password-manager-remember-delete-edit-logins#firefox:win7:fx96 
>>>
>>> * yes, that is one; the select that first one "Make Firefox remember usernames and passwords". Scroll down to "Click the menu Fx57Menu button and select Passwords" [[results of cut and paste]].
>>>    See my comment below.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> They include mention of means to disable the feature.
>>>> Make sure those disabling controls are not messing with you.
>>>>
>>>> It says that using "Private Browsing Mode" continuously, disabled
>>>> the feature. The purpose of Private Browsing is not to leave
>>>> any trace of your activity, and that includes recording
>>>> passwords to porno sites. That's why they disable it.
>>>>
>>>> The article also says:
>>>>
>>>>     about:logins
>>> * They say to manage passwords, click on the triple bar icon, then click on/select passwords and then one will get about:passwords.
>>>    Well, one no longer gets that list of passwords
>>>>
>>>> should open the password management page. But you can
>>>> have items stored in there, and if the feature and those
>>>> tick boxes depicted on the instruction page are not
>>>> ticked, then it won't do anything.
>>>>
>>>> There's really a lot of helpful hints there.
>>> * hints that no longer work.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>     Paul
>>>
>>>     Thanks.
>>
>> Works here.
>>
>> How I tested:
>>
>>     Ubuntu Server, gnome-desktop, apache2, VirtualBox session, screenshots
>>
>> Results:
>>
>>     [Picture]  If empty picture frame shows, right click and "Reload image"
>>
>>     https://i.postimg.cc/PJZFnYmD/FF96-saves-my-password.gif
>>
>>    Paul
>    Maybe because Linux is involved?
> 
>    Thanks.

The password container should work the same on both versions.

FOSS software tries to work on cross-platform subsystems.
For example, OpenGL is common to both Windows and Linux,
whereas DirectX3D is not.

While some browsers rely on the Windows SChannel, Firefox might
be one of the browsers that brings its own crypto support to even
out the difference in subsystems between platforms.

The developers *hate* coding if/then/else for umpteen different
OSes, and as much as they can they try to use code that works
anywhere.

AFAIK, there are a couple cross-platform packaging environments.
One of them would be Qt, such as Qt4 or Qt5. This allows multiplatform
support for thir-party programs. You can write for Linux and it runs on
Windows, and the Qt support files make up the difference. The impact
of that is, instead of a program being a 0.5MB download, it's around
a 100MB download. Just the internationalization code might be a 20MB
DLL.

I tested on Linux, because in Windows Features, it was not apparent
that a copy of IIS web server was present, so I just decided to do
the whole experiment in a Linux VM instead. As Apache was available
there, and it produces the Apache test page as soon as you install it.
Then, all I have to do is turn on password authentication, to get
a password storage response from Firefox. That's why I did it that way.

I think I can run two VMs, and load FF96 into a Windows OS there, but I really
don't see a reason the response will be different. Linux could have
a firewall loaded, and to get the http://127.0.0.1:80 web server to
respond on the Linux VM, I might need to check that the firewall is
not blocking it.

So when you run your FF96, do you see the same sorts of
prompts I'm seeing in the picture ?

The files in the profile, the version of those changes from
release to release. The migration logic should drag the materials
from the old version to the new version. I don't know if the FF logic
is clever enough to delete the junk once that is done. This involves
a numbered file, like a "cert8" or the like. They put a number after
some of the files, as a means to demonstrate which API they follow.
If you lost your passwords, that might be an explanation. But as far
as eliciting a response (the "Save this password" dialog), that
should follow the Preferences tick boxes.

    Paul