There are many types of web browser today such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Each of the web browsers comes with their very own password management tool so that it can remember your username and password for a specific website and immediately uses them to log you in automatically whenever you visit the page again in the future. It is pretty cool stuff because you don’t have to remember anything and just open up your web browser and start browsing. Question now is that is it secure to let your web browser to remember your password?
Is it secure to let your web browser remembers your password?
Security and convenience usually does not come in together for good. If you have spotted that there is a critical and highly sensitive application is performing in a very convenient way, you should start questioning about the security. Same goes to the current issue which is letting your web browser to remember your password. It is very convenient until it pops to my mind one day where I ask myself whether where does the web browser saved all my passwords? Is the password stored is encrypted? I started researching after that and come across a site called NirSoft and it has a compilation of all the Windows Password Recovery Tools. In my current entry, i will not show all the tools but only the tools to extract passwords from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
Web Browser Password Extractor
Microsoft Internet Explorer Password Extractor
Images from Nirsoft
The tool to extract password from Internet Explorer we browser is called IE Pass View. You can find it from NirSoft if you are interested to try out the tools. The tool is just a simple executable file where after you run it, you will see the screen as above. All the username and passwords you store inside this web browser will all be shown clearly UNENCRYPTED.
Google Chrome Password Extractor
Image from Nirsoft
The tool to extract password from Google Chrome web browser is called ChromePass. The GUI of the tool is more or less the same for all the web browser password extractor. This is not the main thing because the main thing here is again, you password is shown UNENCRYPTED.
Mozilla Firefox Password Extractor
There is a tool as well for you to extract password from the Mozilla Firefox web browser. However, for this web browser, it is not necessary for you to have a tool to do it. You can show all your passwords out simply by just going to:
Tools >> Options >> Security >> Saved Passwords… >> Show Passwords
Pretty cool isn’t it.
Saving Password into Web Browser’s Security – My Verdict
I’m sure now you should know by now how dangerous is it when you simply just save your password into your web browser. If you need to try out those tools, you can just go to NirSoft and get the tools. They have plenty of password recovery tools there. My point here is not to teach you how to crack your own password, but to let you all know that saving your password into the web browser is as dangerous as saving it in a notepad file. It is even more dangerous in fact when you save your password into a web browser because you can’t hide the location of your saved password. Where else if you save in a notepad, you still can hide it somewhere secured. However, it is not safe at all if you save your password into your computer if you read my post on how to create a strong password. Last but not least, do subscribe to my RSS feeds to get the latest news and tricks in securing your web browser and your internet safety as well.
About Alan Tay
You have just made me think twice about letting Firefox remember my passwords!
Thanks for the incite Alan
Hope you are not too late, Christopher. Do give a try on those tools to see your own raw passwords. You might not be used to it since we usually see ********
Anyway, thanks for dropping by here
Very good info to know, thank you! Now, can this info be available remotely, or must one be at the terminal in order to get the passwords? Asking since I am on a secure wireless connection. Thanks!
You must be in the workstation to obtain these information. Which means they need to at least hack into your computer to get them.
Oh god. This is really scary. Luckily I rarely let my browser remember my passwords.
Yah, we shouldn’t in fact. Passwords should be remembered manually or use a reliable password management system.
Manually? Haha..that’s gonna kill me. I do use password management tool such as anypassword.
That’s great. Not many user uses password management tool. You must be someone concerned about security and privacy a lot
I am never going to save passwords in my browser again :S
Comment edited due to spam detection.
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