Unknown Firefox Master Password

By John Swindells 05 Jun 2006 | Comment
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Well, this was a strange problem when I installed Firefox - a mystery Master Password. I'd installed Firefox and had it copy settings over from Netscape 7.2. Everything seemed fine until I went to a site that needed a login; I ticked the box to remember the password, and up popped a box asking for my master password. Well, I didn't know I had a master password, and Netscape hadn't used one. Consequently, I was unable to save my passwords from then on, but was able to keep using the passwords that had been imported from Netscape.

Some research led me to the belief that the only real option was to reset the master password - and destroy all the saved passwords with it. I considered using crack tools to determine the password, but first decided to try doing the password reset. I still had the passwords in the old Netscape profile, which I could re-import if I had to. I performed the password reset using this in the Firefox address bar: chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xul . The outcome was surprising: the browser closed itself, and when I opened it up again and went to a login page with a previously-remembered login, my login details were still there! Furthermore, in the Privacy:Passwords section of Firefox options, there was no master password set! I could still see all my login details without hindrance, and now I could add new ones! Hurrah!

This password reset did the job for me, but it may not work for you. I cannot be held responsible for any loss of data, income, hair, etc as a result of you copying what I did here. You're on your own!

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