Windows Password?
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I am trying to view a password in Vivaldi but it asks for my 'Windows password'?
I don't have a Windows password. What is up with this? What do I enter here?
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@Onweerwolf, Windows stores passwords encrypted with a second keyring. They are only accessible, either with your password in your Windows account, or with the password or PIN that you use on the welcome screen.
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I don't have a Windows password. My desktop is in my home. A password would be pointless and very annoying.
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@Onweerwolf Your system came with a password. I just can't remember how to locate it...
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It did not. I never entered any sort of password when installing my OS.
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@Onweerwolf So I double-checked that. They ship blank these days.
Did you try clicking on the password textbox and pressing "enter?"
Any more, since there are now a number of apps that make you have to enter your system password for one thing or another, I always create one and then set the system up to log in without it.
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What does that mean "ship blank"?
I have never had an app that needs a Windows password. What apps are you talking about? I don't use any software that needs a password at all.
Just entering without giving a password does not work.
Did they change this recently? Pretty sure I never had this problem before.
I don't get why Vivaldi would make itself link to Microsoft like that. -
@Onweerwolf Vivaldi does not link to microsoft. It merely makes sure you can't look at the passwords plaintext unless you own the computer. And that is inherited from Chrome.
'Way back in the day, Windows had a built-in default admin password. Not any more. It ships blank. But there are a number of apps these days, bookkeeping and accounting apps, system-editing apps, VPN apps, etc., that make you enter your system password to access certain functions of them. So I make sure I always have a system password now, and know what it is.
But on all my machines but my laptop that I travel with, I set up all my systems to let me boot in without having to enter that password.
It is not a recent change that chromium-based browsers want to see a system password to let you see your browser passwords. Been that way for a few years now.
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So how does Vivaldi get access to this Windows password?
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@Onweerwolf It doesn't. It tries to access the password file and cannot, because it is password-protected. It passes the message to you that the system requires a password to access the encrypted file. If you provide the password to do this, it hands it off to the system so that the file can be accessed. Access to the Login Data file remains open for a few minutes from the system and then expires. After that, the system will demand the password again.
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So, why would Vivaldi use Windows for that? If you want something protected wouldn't you want to use anything but Microsoft for that?
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@Onweerwolf Here's the basics as I understand it:
Vivaldi (and all Chromium-based browsers, including Edge, Chrome etc), uses Windows DPAPI to encrypt the stored login credentials.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_APIThe browser uses a combination of your Windows user credentials - a login "token", and a "secret" (actually not that secret) key to encrypt them. To decrypt and view the passwords the process needs to be reversed. As an extra security measure, the browser will ask you to enter your Windows password.
Most likely you have set your Windows to log your user in automatically. However, this does not necessarily mean your user has a blank password, most likely a password was set when your user was created. If you got it shipped like that, there should still be a password (even if you don't know it). Not even sure Windows' user accounts can have blank passwords...
Have you tried just pressing Enter when prompted for the password?
Otherwise you might just have to set a password you know for the Windows user account.Here's a tool you can use to bypass the password requirement to decrypt the browser passwords. Basically it shows that the requirement is just for show (as a logged in user alredy has the required token to decrypt the password):
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.htmlPersonally I wish the browser(s) would just drop the password requirement to show the stored credentials, as any security would lie in the user keeping their actual user account safe. And if they can't do that, then well...
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@Onweerwolf Password transport is performed by the underlying Chromium/blink engine. Vivaldi did not "chose Windows" for the encryption and decryption methods. The same data protection methods are used by Chromium/blink for extension data. Vivaldi does not get a choice in that, either.
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@Onweerwolf If your local Windows account has no password protected login, Vivaldi Settings does not ask for a password to reveal login passwords.
I just tested this with my Win 11 22H2. -
Well, I have no clue what my Windows password would be if I have one.
I store my passwords in Bitwarden and that works fine. I was looking for one that wasn't stored there for some reason. I used my Android device to find it as I sync everything from Vivaldi.
I'm up for a system drive format and a fresh OS install soonish anyway so I will see and check how things work after that.
It seems pretty dumb by Vivaldi or Chromium or whatever you wanna call it to rely on Windows for this though.
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Please keep discussions civil and in line with the Community Code of Conduct.
https://vivaldi.com/privacy/code-of-conductI've removed any unnecessary posts.
@Onweerwolf If you feel this topic is now solved you can mark it as such or I can do it for you.
