Passwords Saved In Firefox Are Viewable To Anyone With Access To Your Computer

Most people take advantage of Firefox's ability to store your passwords for the websites you visit. Did they realize that those passwords are easily accessible to anyone with access to your computer? Anyone who can spend two minutes on your computer (or laptop) can indeed view and even print your entire set of saved account and password pairs.

Simply go to Tools -> Options -> Security and click on the View Saved Password button. Then choose Show Passwords

If you share your computer with others, or if you just want to make absolutely sure your saved web passwords are significantly safer, you have three options:

1. Disable the "Remember Passwords" feature in Firefox so that the program never remembers any of your web passwords.
2. "Lock down Firefox": Create a new, master password that automatically locks all of your passwords.
3. "Lock down your computer": Use your computer's user accounts feature along with a screensaver password to require everyone whose uses your computer to login.

Disable Remember Passwords

If you want to permanently disable Firefox's "Remember Passwords" Feature,

1. Go to Tools > Options > Security
2. Click on the + sign next to the words "Saved Passwords" or, in newer versions of Firefox, click on the "Passwords" tab.
3. Click on the "View Saved Passwords" button.
4. Click on the "Remove All" button.
5. Click on the "Close" button.
6. Uncheck "Remember Passwords."
7. Click on the "OK" button.

Doing this clears all of your old web passwords and prevents Firefox from remembering any new web passwords in the future.

Set a Master Password

Another way to lock down Firefox is to set a "Master" password. This is a special password Firefox asks you to key in once per session. The master password is not set by default, and the average user will not set it by himself. I warn everyone I know that is using Firefox to set a master password. This is best achieved by showing them how I can look at all their saved passwords just by looking in the options-dialog.

To set a master password,

1. Go to Tools > Options > Security
2. Click on the + sign next to the words "Saved Passwords" or, in newer versions of Firefox, click on the "Passwords" tab.
3. Click on the "Set Master Password" button.
4. Key in a new "master" password.
5. Click on OK.