firefox: remember passwords for all sites

When logging in on some websites, these sites don't offer (I suspect intentionally) to remember passwords. This happens not only on public websites, but also in my intranet (remote web consoles, Dell DRAC, ...) and it is extremely annoying to having to type the login details each time.

Is it possible somehow, to force a particular website (Firefox) to remember the username and password ?

NOTE: In my firefox, I have "remember password for sites" selected, and "Exceptions" is empty.

user1968963

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 121

Maybe use something like iMacros to automate actions in the web? – Vi. – 2013-12-11T10:40:55.197

2See in about:permissions if the sites where remember doesn't work are any different from the others. – harrymc – 2013-12-11T16:07:08.253

If the issue is related to autocomplete=off, you could try Remember Passwords. It's possible to check for the existence of autocomplete=off by right-clicking the input boxes > Inspect Element (Q).

– vWil – 2013-12-11T17:34:09.110

1@vWil: I don't see any autocomplete=off in the code – user1968963 – 2013-12-11T22:06:25.563

There’s some Chrome extensions that force autocomplete to be on so that Chrome will allow password-saving (I’ve used this one since Chrome 0.2). There seem to be some Firefox addons that do the same thing like this one.

– Synetech – 2013-12-13T01:54:51.963

Answers

For Firefox and other browsers, there is Lastpass. I use it for websites as well as for example the login into my local router. It's secure because it allows to easily have distinct, long, random passwords on every website.

It securely stores all the passwords locally in an encrypted BLOB somewhere (with the possibility to sycronise the BLOB with other PC's of yours). To access the stored passwords, you provide a single "master password". You can define how often the master password is queried.

To learn more see this official video from Lastpass on YouTube.

It's internals are covered by Steve Gibson from GRC in episode 256 of the "Security Now" podcast series.

Marcel

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 456

I suspect, there must be something in Firefox (a misfeature) that disables saving passwords for some sites (of course, this is for my own good - whether I want it or not). So ideally, I would like to know how to turn off this misfeature (in config). I don't want to install any additional Addons – user1968963 – 2013-12-11T13:35:31.280

There is the obvious Options/Security Tab with the Password panel. I'm sure you have checked the two checkboxes and have looked into the exceptions? – Marcel – 2013-12-11T13:41:49.337

@user1968963 That may be the case, but in my experience with Internet Explorer I found that some websites can configure themselves to not save passwords to auto-populate inside a login form. In some cases (for my situation) a 3rd party plugin was the only solution. – root – 2013-12-11T13:51:41.330

@root Websites may choose to change the id or name of the username and password fields deliberately for each request, to confuse password managers. OP, can you comment on this, is this what you experience? – Marcel – 2013-12-11T13:58:40.237

@Marcel yes, I have Remember Passwords for sites enabled, and Exceptions empty – user1968963 – 2013-12-11T16:22:15.613

@user1968963 Have a look at this article, especially around the "bookmarklet" section, for informational purposes: http://kb.mozillazine.org/User_name_and_password_not_remembered However, I would still recommed Lastpass over this stuff. I personally do not feel save this way.

– Marcel – 2013-12-11T16:40:47.037

So ideally, I would like to know how to turn off this misfeature (in config). I don't want to install any additional Addons I doubt that there would be such a feature; it makes no sense for there to be an option to prevent something from working correctly built-in. You’ll probably have to resort to an add-on. – Synetech – 2013-12-13T01:56:07.733

@Marcel Aren't you afraid that a firefox update will break compatibility with the lastpass addon with all the sites? – AnonymousLurker – 2013-12-18T05:23:44.853

@AnonymousLurker Not at all. I use LastPass for quite a while now and never got into trouble ever because of a Firefox update. – Marcel – 2013-12-18T09:13:55.983

You might want to consider a solution such as Keypass.

You can use the auto-type feature enabling you to have Keypass type logins and passwords on you behalf, in a secure fashion (without keyloggers being able to log what you typed).

It is also very valuable in that it constitues a safe lock for all your passwords. In my opinion, it is always good to have your passwords not stored in your browser (also enabling you to get a bit more privacy by emptying all private data, cookies and so on when you close your browser).

On top of this it is not browser-specific so you could use it to store and enter your passwords for about every GUI-based application (eg. Thunderbird etc).

If you are on Linux, you can check the excellent KeepassX.

I have been using KeepassX for a while and it has saved my left wrist for a thousands of repetitive Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V...

Iam Zesh

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 211

I don't need any fancy secure password manager. These sites that I want to store my passwords for are mostly on my intranet. Storing passwords in plaintext is good enough – user1968963 – 2013-12-11T13:37:47.167

1@user1968963 I personnally like Keypass / KeepassX because they work offline, unlike Lastpass. As I wrote, I also like the fact that they are independant from the browser and that they enable you to setup a shortcut filling in for you the various login forms (they can recognize windows based on their title and you can also set their behavior when hitting the shortcut, eg {USERNAME}{TAB}{PASSWORD}{ENTER} or {PASSWORD}{ENTER} etc...). On top of this those are lightweight. Sure, they are password managers but they also have the above features making them very attractive. – Iam Zesh – 2013-12-11T19:47:47.070

Firefox won't do what you want, Keypass makes it work without fuss. That isn't fancy, it is what you asked for (see maintaining security as a free bonus). – JamesRyan – 2013-12-17T13:09:10.127

Firefox does not work in the way you want it to work. You aren't getting an answer that says what you want because that answer does not exist.

The Password Manager in Firefox will respect individual sites' requests to disallow password remembrance. In the Password Manager (Firefox > Options > Security tab > Saved Passwords), you have the ability to remove passwords, but not add passwords.

Without any Add-Ons, there is only one way to add passwords to the Password Manager in Firefox: wait for the prompt while you are logging in, and select to remember the password. This prompt can be disabled in Firefox by adding an Exception to the Password Manager or at the request of the website itself. Most notably, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo have all written code to prevent passwords from being remembered on their sites.

There are JavaScript commands that can be run in Firefox to attempt to override the "do not remember passwords" request from the website. These scripts, provided below from squarefree.com, can be bookmarked, and work to varying degrees of success depending on the website you are using. Just know that the scripts, while good, cannot reliably override this function in every case. Programmers willing enough and smart enough will be able to prevent you from saving passwords.

That said, try bookmarking the scripts below. They currently work in most situations. They need to be run before you submit your ID / password.

With feedback:

javascript:(function(){var ca,cea,cs,df,dfe,i,j,x,y;function n(i,what){return i+" "+what+((i==1)?"":"s")}ca=cea=cs=0;df=document.forms;for(i=0;i<df.length;++i){x=df[i];dfe=x.elements;if(x.onsubmit){x.onsubmit="";++cs;}if(x.attributes["autocomplete"]){x.attributes["autocomplete"].value="on";++ca;}for(j=0;j<dfe.length;++j){y=dfe[j];if(y.attributes["autocomplete"]){y.attributes["autocomplete"].value="on";++cea;}}}alert("Removed autocomplete=off from:\n"+n(ca,"form")+"\n"+n(cea,"form element")+"\n\nRemoved onsubmit from:\n"+n(cs,"form")+"\n\nAfter you type your password and submit the form, the browser will offer to remember your password.")})();

Without feedback (no pop-up):

javascript:(function(){function R(w){try{var a,df,dfe,i,j,x,y,r=1;df=w.document.forms;for(i=0;x=df[i];++i){dfe=x.elements;if(a=x.onsubmit){a=""}if(a=x.attributes["autocomplete"]){a.value="on"}for(j=0;y=dfe[j];++j){if(a=y.attributes["autocomplete"]){a.value="on"}}}}catch(E){r=0}return r}R(self);var i,x;for(i=0;x=frames[i];++i)R(x)})();

Without feedback unless you run it twice:

javascript:(function(){var c=0;function R(w){try{var a,df,dfe,i,j,x,y,r=1;df=w.document.forms;for(i=0;x=df[i];++i){dfe=x.elements;if(a=x.onsubmit){a=""}if(a=x.attributes["autocomplete"]){if(a.value=="on"){c++}a.value="on"}for(j=0;y=dfe[j];++j){if(a=y.attributes["autocomplete"]){if(a.value=="on"){c++}a.value="on"}}}}catch(E){r=0}return r}R(self);var i,x;for(i=0;x=frames[i];++i)R(x);if(c){alert("Found: "+c)}})();

The other option is to use an AddOn for Firefox, like the ones mentioned in the other answers.

philipthegreat

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 1 500

This happens because the forms or form fields have autocomplete disabled. Password saving is a form of autocomplete, and if the website owners don't want autocomplete or password/username saving, they can use the autocomplete attribute and set it to false for the elements. So in a sense it's the website owner's fault.

LastPass, Keepass, RememberPass or Autofill Forms can be used to bypass this.

The scripts in @philipthegreat's answer ought to work as well.

I agree that this behavior may not always be desirable, so I have submitted a bug report and patch for review.

Update: The bug report has been redirected to an earlier one, but the patch has passed review and after a secondary check it will probably get pushed.

Manishearth

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 1 136

use saved password editor plugin or iMacros plugin from Mozilla.If you are looking for script files, then there are many VB scripts for making login to any website automatically. I think batch scripts are not used to do so, as it will not send any such data to a GUI.

Renju Chandran chingath

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 1 461

Here is a bookmarklet to turn on password memorising and autocomplete on text fields where it is disabled:

javascript:(function(){var%20ca,cea,cs,df,dfe,i,j,x,y;function%20n(i,what){return%20i+"%20"+what+((i==1)?"":"s")}ca=cea=cs=0;df=document.forms;for(i=0;i<df.length;++i){x=df[i];dfe=x.elements;if(x.onsubmit){x.onsubmit="";++cs;}if(x.attributes["autocomplete"]){x.attributes["autocomplete"].value="on";++ca;}for(j=0;j<dfe.length;++j){y=dfe[j];if(y.attributes["autocomplete"]){y.attributes["autocomplete"].value="on";++cea;}}}alert("Removed%20autocomplete=off%20from%20"+n(ca,"form")+"%20and%20from%20"+n(cea,"form%20element")+",%20and%20removed%20onsubmit%20from%20"+n(cs,"form")+".%20After%20you%20type%20your%20password%20and%20submit%20the%20form,%20the%20browser%20will%20offer%20to%20remember%20your%20password.")})();

Simply create a new bookmark with that code as the target, and click it on a page that you want to remember your password. When you log in, the usual "do you want to remember this password" dialogue should appear.

MikeFHay

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 2 334

Passwords are not remembered on these sites because the site authors have deliberately set the autocomplete="off" attribute on the form/form fields to prevent password saving.

Using the Greasemonkey addon it is possible to automatically run your own JavaScript in web pages, and this can be used to to re-enable password saving on such pages.

If you choose to write your own, this JavaScript could be as simple as the following (taken from my script to do this for o2.co.uk).

document.getElementById('user_name').removeAttribute('autocomplete');
document.getElementById('user_password').removeAttribute('autocomplete');

Alternatively, if you want to do this for all websites then there are a number of scripts on userscripts.org that will do this (although I haven't used any myself so can't vouch for any one in particular).

mavit

Posted 2013-12-05T13:55:59.777

Reputation: 541