Work with Keychains


Keychains record passwords you use for applications, network servers, or web sites, and that store these passwords globally in a single, strongly encrypted file. The advantage of using keychains is that you can record your individual passwords and access them with a single keychain password. The advantage of this is that you only need to remember one password—your keychain password— instead of dozens of individual passwords.

You’ll see a check box in a password dialog whenever you can add a password to your keychain. Check this to add the password to your keychain so you won’t have to enter it again.

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The preceding illustration shows this in a dialog, but you’ll also see this in many e-mail programs, where you can choose to record your e-mail account password in the keychain, and in some programs’ preferences if passwords are required.

When you create an account, an initial keychain, called login, is created for you. Unless you create additional keychains, all your passwords will be added to this one. This keychain uses your login password; you can change the password—but in that case, you’ll have to enter the keychain password the first time, in each session, when an application requests information from the keychain.

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Changing the keychain password makes your Mac a bit more secure since, if you use automatic login, your keychain is automatically unlocked if it has the same password. Also, while an administrator may need to know your login password, you can have a different keychain password that you don’t need to share.

To do this, open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.

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If your keychain is locked, click the lock icon, and then enter your password to unlock it. Next, select Edit | Change Password for Keychain “login” (if your keychain has a different name, this name will appear in quotes). Enter your password in the first dialog, then enter it again in the second dialog, and enter the new password twice. Click OK to change the password.

Store Sensitive Data in Keychain Notes

Your keychain can hold more than just passwords. A useful feature available in Keychain Access is its Note feature. If you click the Note icon in the Keychain Access toolbar, you can add a secure note to your keychain.

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Enter a name for your note, and then the text you want to add, and click the Add button. Only you can read this note after entering your keychain password. When you add a note, it displays in the list of items in the keychain window. Click that item, and then check Show Note to see its contents. You can copy the contents of the note by clicking Copy Note to Clipboard.

Even if your keychain is unlocked, you’ll need to enter your password to access the contents of the note.

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Note

You’ll see the preceding dialog on many occasions, whenever you need to enter your keychain password to allow a specific application, server, or web site to access your password. You always have the same three options: Deny, Allow Once, and Always Allow. However, you’ll find that Always Allow doesn’t always stick, and you’ll occasionally find places where you need to enter your password no matter how many times you click Always Allow.

Enter your password in this dialog, or click Deny. If you enter your password, you can click Allow Once to view the note just once, or Always Allow, so you can view the note again without re-entering your password.

Note

Keychain also stores passwords you enter in web site forms if you use Safari. Select Safari | Preferences, and then click AutoFill. Check User Names and Passwords to turn this on. When you enter a user name and a password, Safari will ask you if you want to store this data in the keychain. If you do, Safari will automatically enter the data for you the next time you return to the web page. If you haven’t yet unlocked your keychain, Safari will ask you to do so.




How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther
How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther
ISBN: 007225355X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 171

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