Manage Mac OS X Keychain 7
Tip
Hey
I don’t usually link to many sites from this blog. I don’t no why. But this post by Gated Logic really caught my eye, so I decided to share it with you. You should know by now that keychain, located in Utilities > Keychain Access is used to store the passwords and other security features used by your applications. For example Safari stores password in there (I wish Firefox did) as well as other third party applications.
The post by Gated Logic shows you some cool tips on how to move your keychain access to external drives as well as general tips. I learnt something new about keychain. Admittedly I don’t use keychain very much.
One general tip that I would like to give is to use the password assistant. When you go to create a new keychain (File > New Keychain) click on the small key in the bottom right of the window. From this select random from the drop down menu. The small password assistant can then be used to make a secure password. 
Pick the longest password you can remember. The 31 random character passwords are perfect for root logins on servers or something so secure you never want it to be cracked at the moment. A password with 31 characters in length would take years to crack even with rainbow tables. If you are concerned about passwords I recommend 1Password for all of your password needs.
Where To Next?
7 Responses to “Manage Mac OS X Keychain”
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Thanks for the link :)
(you’d probably not be surprised to learn that links to that post account for the vast majority of the traffic to my blog… I guess I should probably write more like it!)
Comment By Mo on July 8th, at 1:49 pm
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Could you include on how to export the Keychain, since mine is greyed out and I have’nt been able to find anything on the net that explains how to un-grey it?
Comment By Alex on July 8th, at 2:36 pm
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No problem mo.
@alex. I think you can only export certain items if my memory serves me correctly.
Comment By admin on July 8th, at 2:38 pm
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My neighbor just got a used eMac G4. Her first computer. We are senior citizens too! *g*
I have only used a PC with Windows so I am rapidly learning the how-to’s with her MAC.
She has a KeyChain /password frame that comes up each time she goes to Safari. She has the password so types it in and of course accesses Safari.MY question is why does she have to type in the password each time? Can’t she bypass that process? When she first got the computer and before a technican fooled around with it, she could access Safari fine.
Any suggestions would help.
PollyComment By pollywog on November 8th, at 3:47 pm
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I’m having a similar problem, except there are two administrators. I bought the G4 from a friend and had my hard drive installed. Ever since I tried to defrag both hard drives (unable to-problem) I haven’t been able to access my harddrive and I don’t know the keychain access password.
Would you happen to know a way to bypass this process?
Is there a way to reset the keychain access password?
Thanks
CComment By Christiane Leach on January 9th, at 6:19 pm
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Let me tell you why I think this “Keychain” idea is the worst idea ever. Why? Because a lot of people, like me, didn’t know it was there! So everyone says, buy a Mac, they’re great, you’ll love it.
So I bought a cheap ibook on eBay and started playing around with it. I logged on to AOL and entered all my passwords, (I have 7 screen names), I logged on to Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger and entered my passwords, etc. NEVER KNOWING these passwords were being sent to a KEYCHAIN that could be accessed by anyone who used this laptop. After a while, I decided I didn’t like the laptop, as it was too hard for me to understand, and it wouldn’t operate easily for me, and wouldn’t download certain programs, because it was an older ibook. So I decided to sell it for what I paid for it. I let someone try it out for a couple of days, not realizing, if they knew anything about your product, they could easily retrieve all my passwords, which they did. They also copied a lot of my files.
Then they told me they didn’t want to buy it.
It wasn’t until four months later, when someone else who was interested in buying it, told me about the KEYCHAIN and how all my passwords were in there. THANKS A LOT FOR A REALLY STUPID IDEA.
Passwords on a keychain? What for? I have all mine in my head, and have for years. Never a problem with that. I had to change everything, and the guy who got to read all my emails and messengers between me and my boyfriend gives me these totally smirking looks every time he sees me. It’s really shocking to realize I was placed in such a position by your company and your KEYCHAIN. There should be a warning on there somewhere so newbies would know that ALL their passwords are being copied. I have since removed them all and locked the KEYCHAIN on empty and hope it isn’t still adding passwords.
I hate the fact that this happened, and I hate the way everyone goes on and on as to what a terrific thing it is. It is NOTComment By Alice on July 1st, at 4:26 pm
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@Alice
Um, if you have an account password, Keychain requires that to be entered before it shows any passwords. If you didn’t have an account password, well, that’s not Apple’s fault.
It’s also not Apple’s fault that you gave someone your computer, with all your information on it. I hope you didn’t have any bank account information on there, because if you did, they probably got that too. Computers aren’t magically secure from prying eyes. If you don’t want someone knowing your personal information, you take steps to ensure they can’t access it. Whether it be stronger passwords, or wiping your hard drive clean (or better yet, removing the hard drive and putting in a brand new one) before letting someone “evaluate” your computer before purchase.
Keychain is just a centralized, secure encrypted password storage. But even without it, your passwords are stored in the various programs you use (even on Windows, so I hope you’ve learned a lesson from this). Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, Opera, AOL, AIM, MSN, Yahoo… and so many more, they all store your passwords, and most of them don’t even bother to encrypt those passwords like Keychain does, so anyone that knows where they are stored, can read them just like reading text in a book.
Security is ultimately and solely your responsibility. Not Apple, not Microsoft, not anyone else but you.
Comment By Jay on October 30th, at 9:04 pm