Join the Mozilla’s Test Days event from Dec 2–8 to test the new Firefox address bar on Firefox Beta 134 and get a chance to win Mozilla swag vouchers! 🎁

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Natao arisiva ity resaka mitohy ity. Mametraha fanontaniana azafady raha mila fanampiana.

Which password does Firefox use to encrypt my passwords/sync data?

  • 3 valiny
  • 1 manana an'ity olana ity
  • 1 view
  • Valiny farany nomen'i cor-el

more options

This article [1] has confused me, specifically:

> if somebody were able to get your username and password, all they could get is your encrypted data records. They would then need to know your passphrase to decrypt your data.

Presumably the username/password is the Firefox Sync account username/password? But does that mean that Firefox's master password is the Weave passphrase?

I have a strong account password, but a weak master password because I assumed that the account password would be used to encrypt sync data and the master password was only there to thwart attackers with local physical access. Was I wrong?

[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Weave/Crypto

This article [1] has confused me, specifically: > if somebody were able to get your username and password, all they could get is your encrypted data records. They would then need to know your passphrase to decrypt your data. Presumably the username/password is the Firefox Sync account username/password? But does that mean that Firefox's master password is the Weave passphrase? I have a strong account password, but a weak master password because I assumed that the account password would be used to encrypt sync data and the master password was only there to thwart attackers with local physical access. Was I wrong? [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Weave/Crypto

Vahaolana nofidina

hi Jamie Kitson, this article is outdated and doesn't apply to the current sync system (the "passphrase" it was referring to was a special sync key seperate from your account pwd, which isn't used anymore).

you are right that a strong firefox account password is the most important precaution you can take to ensure that your sync data stays secure. you can read up more details on that on https://blog.mozilla.org/services/2014/02/07/a-better-firefox-sync/ & on a more technical level at https://github.com/mozilla/fxa-auth-server/wiki/onepw-protocol

Hamaky an'ity valiny ity @ sehatra 👍 1

All Replies (3)

more options

Vahaolana Nofidina

hi Jamie Kitson, this article is outdated and doesn't apply to the current sync system (the "passphrase" it was referring to was a special sync key seperate from your account pwd, which isn't used anymore).

you are right that a strong firefox account password is the most important precaution you can take to ensure that your sync data stays secure. you can read up more details on that on https://blog.mozilla.org/services/2014/02/07/a-better-firefox-sync/ & on a more technical level at https://github.com/mozilla/fxa-auth-server/wiki/onepw-protocol

more options

Thanks Philip. Do you have any idea who could update those pages to point to the updated pages?

more options

Data uploaded to the Sync server is encrypted locally using a Sync key that is derived from the password that you use to connect to Sync. I think that if you include passwords in syncing that they are still encrypted with the master password and that you would have to use the same MP on all connected devices.

Bug 1013064 - Enable password sync with FxA and master password