Google Chrome’s Saved Passwords Lock Down Coming Soon – Will Ask You For System Password

You shouldn’t be saving passwords on Google Chrome if it is not your personal computer. But if you have done so, here is something that Google is working on to make things slightly better.

François Beaufort reports that Google Chrome on OSX is getting such a feature:

Once you’ve enabled the chrome://flags/#enable-password-manager-reauthentication flag, user who’s trying to reveal a plain text password inchrome://settings/passwords will be prompted to reauthenticate with the User Mac OS password.

Better, but Not Enough

I had all my passwords saved on Chrome, and recently started sharing the PC with a friend of mine. I created a separate profile for him, but he can still open up my profile, and see all my passwords.

And here comes the Google solution. Enter the password for the computer.But hey, I shared the system password too with this friend when I let him use the PC. So, he has my password and can still see my passwords.

Here is what I need.

Google Chrome asks for my Google Account password when I launch Chrome. It asks for the password again when I (or someone else) attempts to view saved passwords.

There should be an option to turn this feature off too, of course.

What do you guys think?

November 6, 2013

Chromebook

5 responses to “Google Chrome’s Saved Passwords Lock Down Coming Soon – Will Ask You For System Password”

mzzt

The MAZZTer

November 6, 2013

IMO there are already plenty of OS-level features for everyone who is complaining that Google isn’t providing the same features…

Reply
Luis

November 6, 2013

I think it’s dumb to share the computer password. That’s what guest accounts are for. Will you share your banking account password to?

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1. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
  
  Dinsan Francis
  
  November 7, 2013
  
  But there are many situations where you will have to. When your friend or a relative comes to stay with you for a while, you end up sharing the password…
  
  Reply
PAEz – Australia – My tag is PAEz, my name is unimportant.

PAEz

November 7, 2013

On Im windows so no go then aye?
And even it was I dont have a password on my windows.
Personally Id like them to use my Google/Gmail password and only allow it to work if Im on the net so the password is never stored on my pc (my gmail is the one password I dont store in Chrome)…all the passwords are for internet stuff, so dont see that being a problem.
Plus isnt my Chrome linked to my Google identity?…so doesn’t this make sense?

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Nas Hashmi

anas hashmi

November 7, 2013

They went thru a bunch of hoops to get such a lame workaround. They should have simply changed the storage mechanism of passwords on the computer and keep it encrypted. Each time a login appears, it decrypts on the fly. Each time the passwords are shown, it decrypts as well.

System password only works on Chromebooks. And using a password to open chrome on a shared computer degrades experience.

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