Gary,
How safe is the password generator in Safari? If someone hacks my computer will they be able to get all my passwords? Also do you recommend using the pw generator for banking etc.
—–
Bob
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Is It Safe to Use the Password Generator In Safari?
Comments: 11 Responses to “Is It Safe to Use the Password Generator In Safari?”
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So when you say "password generator" -- I assume you mean the suggested long random passwords that you get when you create a new password in a website on Safari. Those are much safer to use than any non-random password you create from your own mind. Using random passwords is the way to go.
But I think by the rest of your message you really mean the Keychain -- macOS's method of storing passwords and IDs, either created by you or the random password generator. It is used by iOS as well.
This is very safe. The Keychain is encrypted. You need your Keychain password (usually the same as you user account password) to get to that.
It is far safer to use a password manager, like Keychain, but also the third-party ones like 1Password, than any other method? Why? Well, if you don't use a password manager, people tend to use simpler non-random passwords they can type, and also to reuse passwords. Those are the two big dangers.
Someone trying to break into your Mac, then break into the encryption on your Keychain is real cloak-and-dagger spy stuff. That's not how people are hacked. People are hacked from weak passwords and reused passwords.
I use random password generators (Keychain and 1Password) to create all my passwords, from websites to bank accounts.
Great Q&A. It brings up a question in my mind. If you use the safari PW generator it is remembered across all your decvices. What do you do if you need to access one of those websites from a public computer or a device other than your own? That machine won't have access to your keychain and you won't know it either.
Kendall: You can easily access your passwords in Safari on your Mac under Preferences, Passwords. On iOS under Settings, Safari, Passwords.
Excellent!!
Thanks Garry.
Make sure you have "Keychain" turned on in iCloud settings to ensure your passwords are synched across all your devices which also need to be on the same iCloud account.
Gary thanks for the response. Is it safe to keep autofill user name and password turned on since anyone accessing your computer can log into your accounts?
Bob: You should have a user account password set. You do, right? So then no one can access your computer (user account) except you. Only allow others to use their own account on it (roommates, kids, etc) or the Guest account. http://macmost.com/guest-user-accounts.html
And, Gary, are all of these random, unmemorizeable, passwords then available somehow if I am using my adult children's pcs (non Apple) from their homes? I am not sure how I would access my Keychain account to "know" them.
Ron: You can't access your iCloud Keychain via Windows computers. But if you have your iPhone with you then you can look up any password. See my comment above about this. Otherwise, if you need access to your accounts on non-Apple devices without an Apple device of yours nearby, then you should probably use a third-party password manager that is cross-platform like 1Password.
Can you use Keychain with the Firefox browser or only with Safari?
Marj: I don't think so. You'd need to use Firefox's system, or a third-party solution like 1Password or LastPass. You may want to try Safari, though, as the current version Safari is much better than the current version Firefox IMHO.