Reply To: Is It Safe to Store My Passwords in a Windows Browser ? Interesting thought I had regarding Passwords and Windows Edge, Google Chrome and other browsers and how safe are your passwords stored / secured in these browsers ? Lots of different…

[UK Sentinel]

I am slowly drawing to that conclusion also:

Web Browser’s Password Manager Is Just Okay but….

Your web browser’s password manager is better than nothing. With no additional software, your web browser can remember all your passwords and securely sync them between your devices. They can be stored encrypted in the cloud. You can use strong, hard-to-remember passwords because your software is automatically remembering them for you. This keeps your accounts secure, as you won’t need to re-use passwords.

Luckily, different browsers like Edge, Chrome, Safari do not share stored passwords, so some segregation is available so that Banking, Finance and other sensitive online activities could be conducing with one Browser and then other activities, say shopping can be with a second choice browser.

What I am yet to find (need more time) is once a user is online and surfing the Internet via a browser, are the passwords still stored encrypted (hashed) until needed, as this could allow malware, browser extensions and even honest software to extract sensitive information more easily.

Update: Generally speaking, passwords are stored safely in a Browser, when the computer is not logged On, when user has logged On, then passwords are in the clear (some controls are in place, keychains, Edge’s password manager) but in essence, Browsers are designed for convenience over security and the many browser options such as Autofill,  can be exploited to reveal password credentials etc.

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

You need to login in order to vote