How to protect your Firefox saved passwords with a Primary Password
In a perfect world, you would never allow a web browser to store your passwords. Why? Because web browsers aren’t exactly the most secure pieces of software on your desktop. To make matters worse, most modern browsers allow you to sync your passwords to an account, making them available to any browser associated with that account.
That’s not exactly safe.
Do not believe me? If you’re using the Firefox web browser (which is far more secure than Chrome, for example), open the browser and then go to Settings > Privacy & Security and click on Saved Logins.
What you will see might surprise you. You can scroll through the entire list and view any saved password simply by clicking on the eye icon associated with the entry.
You won’t be asked for a password or anything else… you just get unlimited access to all the sights Firefox has to show you.
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This is not good. Worse, you could end up with someone other than yourself accessing your accounts.
How are you?
Well, if Firefox absolutely needs to remember your passwords, you need to protect them with a primary password. Once you’ve enabled the primary password (formerly known as the master password), you’ll be prompted for that password every time you open Firefox, and every time you choose to view a saved password.
Fortunately, this is easy to do. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you forget this primary password, you are in for a challenging ride. To reset this password, you need to open Firefox, point to chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xhtml, and then click Reset. However, if you do this, everything you have saved will be lost.
So if you want to keep those saved credentials intact, it’s in your best interest not to lose that password. To that end, you should consider using a password manager and creating a very strong and unique password as your primary Firefox password.
How to protect your saved passwords in Firefox with a primary password
Are you ready to set up this option? Let’s do it.
requirements
All you need is an updated version of Firefox. I recommend you to always update your web browsers to the latest versions to avoid software vulnerabilities. That’s all you need. Let’s set the primary password.
Open Firefox, then click the menu button (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner of the window. From the drop-down menu, click Settings.
Access to Firefox settings is in this drop-down menu. Image: Jack Wallen
In the Settings window, click Privacy & Security in the left pane, and then look for Logins and Passwords.
You can find saved passwords in the Privacy & Security section of Firefox Preferences. Image: Jack Wallen
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Select the Use primary password check box. A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter and confirm the primary password. You will also see a very clear warning to remember the primary password. Heed this warning and write down your primary password (preferably in a password manager).
Adding a primary password to Firefox. Image: Jack Wallen
Click OK and your primary password is set. Now every time you start Firefox or try to view a password under Settings > Privacy & Security, you will be asked for that password.
Congratulations, you’ve added a much-needed layer of security to Firefox. Now you are the only person who can see your saved passwords. Despite this added level of protection, you should consider disallowing your web browser to store your passwords and using a password manager instead.