6

Braiam said that Firefox stores the password data for login websites in ~/.mozilla/firefox/key3.db and ~/.mozilla/firefox/signons.sqlite files. These files can be read with some sqlite editor.

I try to query for my username and password of a website (e.g. https://sourceforge.net/account/login.php) from the Firefox's database. I can't do it through Firefox, because my Firefox GUI is not working, and I am fairly new to and also interested in learning using databases to do the job.

  1. what are the different roles of key3.db and signons.sqlite?
  2. I searched on the internet, and is it correct that I should use sqlite3 to open a database?

    $ sqlite3 key3.db 
    SQLite version 3.7.9 2011-11-01 00:52:41
    Enter ".help" for instructions
    Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
    sqlite> .tables
    Error: file is encrypted or is not a database
    

    I guess the reason of failure is that, in Firefox, I set up a master keyword to access the passwords it stores. How should I proceed to query the password of a given website?

    My OS is Ubuntu, here is the file type of key3.db :

    $ file key3.db 
    key3.db: Berkeley DB 1.85 (Hash, version 2, native byte-order)
    
  3. What shall I read and learn in order to query the password from a given website name?

    Will reading http://www.sqlite.org/cli.html help?


To garethTheRed:

I tried your command. Not return anything however. The output is abysmal:

$ sqlite3 signons.sqlite
SQLite version 3.7.9 2011-11-01 00:52:41
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> .tables
moz_deleted_logins  moz_disabledHosts   moz_logins        
sqlite> select * from moz_logins;
...
55|https://sourceforge.net||https://sourceforge.net|form_loginname|form_pw|MDIEEPgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEwF\AYIKoZIhvcNAwcECCPrVdOzWamBBAjPs0DI8FrUnQ==|MDoEEPgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECCnZved1LRQMBBBV\DtXpOvAp0TQHibFeX3NL|{16e782de-4c65-426f-81dc-ee0361816262}|1|1327675445094|1403706275829|1327675445094|\4
...

Does Firefox encrypt passwords regardless of if there is a master key? If yes, can we decrypte them in command line (my firefox CLI may still work)?

Alternatively, is it possible that Chrome browser can read and import the passwords stored by Firefox?

8
  • You didn't add a semi-colon to the end of the SQL command. It should be select * from moz_logins; (note the semicolon at the end). Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:44
  • Thanks, garethTheRed. (1) The output is now abysmal. Is it because my master key has encrypted it? (2) The output is long for all websites. is there a command to select the one for sourceforge?
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:56
  • Yes it's encrypted by the key in key3.db. Except it's not abysmal; it's brilliant as it's securing all your logons ;-) Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:59
  • But I need it to show to me, because my firefox is not working. I have my master key.
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 16:00
  • Copy the files to another profile or a different computer (backing everything you overwrite up first of course). Have you tried FF as a different user? If it works for another user, then your FF profile is corrupt. Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 16:06

6 Answers 6

5

Some guy seem to have glued all the necessary code together here:

#!/usr/bin/env python
"Recovers your Firefox or Thunderbird passwords"

import base64
from collections import namedtuple
from ConfigParser import RawConfigParser, NoOptionError
from ctypes import (Structure, CDLL, byref, cast, string_at, c_void_p, 
    c_uint, c_ubyte, c_char_p)
from getpass import getpass
import logging
from optparse import OptionParser
import os
try:
    from sqlite3 import dbapi2 as sqlite
except ImportError:
    from pysqlite2 import dbapi2 as sqlite
from subprocess import Popen, CalledProcessError, PIPE
import sys


LOGLEVEL_DEFAULT = 'warn'

log = logging.getLogger()
PWDECRYPT = 'pwdecrypt'

SITEFIELDS = ['id', 'hostname', 'httpRealm', 'formSubmitURL', 'usernameField', 'passwordField', 'encryptedUsername', 'encryptedPassword', 'guid', 'encType', 'plain_username', 'plain_password' ]
Site = namedtuple('FirefoxSite', SITEFIELDS)
'''The format of the SQLite database is:
(id                 INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,hostname           TEXT NOT NULL,httpRealm          TEXT,formSubmitURL      TEXT,usernameField      TEXT NOT NULL,passwordField      TEXT NOT NULL,encryptedUsername  TEXT NOT NULL,encryptedPassword  TEXT NOT NULL,guid               TEXT,encType            INTEGER);
'''



#### These are libnss definitions ####
class SECItem(Structure):
    _fields_ = [('type',c_uint),('data',c_void_p),('len',c_uint)]

class secuPWData(Structure):
    _fields_ = [('source',c_ubyte),('data',c_char_p)]

(PW_NONE, PW_FROMFILE, PW_PLAINTEXT, PW_EXTERNAL) = (0, 1, 2, 3)
# SECStatus
(SECWouldBlock, SECFailure, SECSuccess) = (-2, -1, 0)
#### End of libnss definitions ####


def get_default_firefox_profile_directory(dir='~/.mozilla/firefox'):
    '''Returns the directory name of the default profile

    If you changed the default dir to something like ~/.thunderbird,
    you would get the Thunderbird default profile directory.'''

    profiles_dir = os.path.expanduser(dir)
    profile_path = None

    cp = RawConfigParser()
    cp.read(os.path.join(profiles_dir, "profiles.ini"))
    for section in cp.sections():
        if not cp.has_option(section, "Path"):
            continue

        if (not profile_path or
            (cp.has_option(section, "Default") and cp.get(section, "Default").strip() == "1")):
            profile_path = os.path.join(profiles_dir, cp.get(section, "Path").strip())

    if not profile_path:
        raise RuntimeError("Cannot find default Firefox profile")

    return profile_path


def get_encrypted_sites(firefox_profile_dir=None):
    'Opens signons.sqlite and yields encryped password data'

    if firefox_profile_dir is None:
        firefox_profile_dir = get_default_firefox_profile_directory()
    password_sqlite = os.path.join(firefox_profile_dir, "signons.sqlite")
    query = '''SELECT id, hostname, httpRealm, formSubmitURL,
                      usernameField, passwordField, encryptedUsername,
                      encryptedPassword, guid, encType, 'noplainuser', 'noplainpasswd' FROM moz_logins;'''

    # We don't want to type out all the column from the DB as we have 
    ## stored them in the SITEFIELDS already. However, we have two 
    ## components extra, the plain usename and password. So we remove 
    ## that from the list, because the table doesn't have that column. 
    ## And we add two literal SQL strings to make our "Site" data 
    ## structure happy
    #queryfields = SITEFIELDS[:-2] + ["'noplainuser'", "'noplainpassword'"]
    #query = '''SELECT %s 
    #           FROM moz_logins;''' % ', '.join(queryfields)

    connection = sqlite.connect(password_sqlite)
    try:
        cursor = connection.cursor()
        cursor.execute(query)

        for site in map(Site._make, cursor.fetchall()):
          yield site
    finally:
        connection.close()

def decrypt(encrypted_string, firefox_profile_directory, password = None):
    '''Opens an external tool to decrypt strings

    This is mostly for historical reasons or if the API changes. It is 
    very slow because it needs to call out a lot. It uses the 
    "pwdecrypt" tool which you might have packaged. Otherwise, you 
    need to build it yourself.'''

    log = logging.getLogger('firefoxpasswd.decrypt')
    execute = [PWDECRYPT, '-d', firefox_profile_directory]
    if password:
        execute.extend(['-p', password])
    process = Popen(execute,
                    stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
    output, error = process.communicate(encrypted_string)

    log.debug('Sent: %s', encrypted_string)
    log.debug('Got: %s', output)

    NEEDLE = 'Decrypted: "' # This string is prepended to the decrypted password if found
    output = output.strip()
    if output == encrypted_string:
        log.error('Password was not correct. Please try again without a '
                   'password or with the correct one')

    index = output.index(NEEDLE) + len(NEEDLE)
    password = output[index:-1] # And we strip the final quotation mark

    return password


class NativeDecryptor(object):
    'Calls the NSS API to decrypt strings'

    def __init__(self, directory, password = ''):
        '''You need to give the profile directory and optionally a 
        password. If you don't give a password but one is needed, you 
        will be prompted by getpass to provide one.'''
        self.directory = directory
        self.log = logging.getLogger('NativeDecryptor')
        self.log.debug('Trying to work on %s', directory)

        self.libnss = CDLL('libnss3.so')
        if self.libnss.NSS_Init(directory) != 0:
            self.log.error('Could not initialize NSS')

        # Initialize to the empty string, not None, because the password
        # function expects rather an empty string
        self.password = password = password or ''


        slot = self.libnss.PK11_GetInternalKeySlot()

        pw_good = self.libnss.PK11_CheckUserPassword(slot, c_char_p(password))
        while pw_good != SECSuccess:
            msg = 'Password is not good (%d)!' % pw_good
            print >>sys.stderr, msg
            password = getpass('Please enter password: ')
            pw_good = self.libnss.PK11_CheckUserPassword(slot, c_char_p(password))
            #raise RuntimeError(msg)

        # That's it, we're done with passwords, but we leave the old 
        # code below in, for nostalgic reasons.

        if password is None:
            pwdata = secuPWData()
            pwdata.source = PW_NONE
            pwdata.data = 0
        else:
            # It's not clear whether this actually works
            pwdata = secuPWData()
            pwdata.source = PW_PLAINTEXT
            pwdata.data = c_char_p (password) 
            # It doesn't actually work :-(


            # Now follow some attempts that were not succesful!
            def setpwfunc():
                # One attempt was to use PK11PassworFunc. Didn't work.
                def password_cb(slot, retry, arg):
                    #s = self.libnss.PL_strdup(password)
                    s = self.libnss.PL_strdup("foo")
                    return s

                PK11PasswordFunc = CFUNCTYPE(c_void_p, PRBool, c_void_p)
                c_password_cb = PK11PasswordFunc(password_cb)
                #self.libnss.PK11_SetPasswordFunc(c_password_cb)


            # To be ignored
            def changepw():                
                # Another attempt was to use ChangePW. Again, no effect.
                #ret = self.libnss.PK11_ChangePW(slot, pwdata.data, 0);
                ret = self.libnss.PK11_ChangePW(slot, password, 0)
                if ret == SECFailure:
                    raise RuntimeError('Setting password failed! %s' % ret)

        #self.pwdata = pwdata


    def __del__(self):
        self.libnss.NSS_Shutdown()


    def decrypt(self, string, *args):
        'Decrypts a given string'

        libnss =  self.libnss

        uname = SECItem()
        dectext = SECItem()        
        #pwdata = self.pwdata

        cstring = SECItem()
        cstring.data  = cast( c_char_p( base64.b64decode(string)), c_void_p)
        cstring.len = len(base64.b64decode(string))
        #if libnss.PK11SDR_Decrypt (byref (cstring), byref (dectext), byref (pwdata)) == -1:
        self.log.debug('Trying to decrypt %s (error: %s)', string, libnss.PORT_GetError())
        if libnss.PK11SDR_Decrypt (byref (cstring), byref (dectext)) == -1:
            error = libnss.PORT_GetError()
            libnss.PR_ErrorToString.restype = c_char_p
            error_str = libnss.PR_ErrorToString(error)
            raise Exception ("%d: %s" % (error, error_str))

        decrypted_data = string_at(dectext.data, dectext.len)

        return decrypted_data


    def encrypted_sites(self):
        'Yields the encryped passwords from the profile'
        sites = get_encrypted_sites(self.directory)

        return sites


    def decrypted_sites(self):
        'Decrypts the encrypted_sites and yields the results'

        sites = self.encrypted_sites()

        for site in sites:
            plain_user = self.decrypt(site.encryptedUsername)
            plain_password = self.decrypt(site.encryptedPassword)
            site = site._replace(plain_username=plain_user,
                plain_password=plain_password)

            yield site


def get_firefox_sites_with_decrypted_passwords(firefox_profile_directory = None, password = None):
    'Old school decryption of passwords using the external tool'
    if not firefox_profile_directory:
        firefox_profile_directory = get_default_firefox_profile_directory()
    #decrypt = NativeDecryptor(firefox_profile_directory).decrypt
    for site in get_encrypted_sites(firefox_profile_directory):
        plain_user = decrypt(site.encryptedUsername, firefox_profile_directory, password)
        plain_password = decrypt(site.encryptedPassword, firefox_profile_directory, password)
        site = site._replace(plain_username=plain_user, plain_password=plain_password)
        log.debug("Dealing with Site: %r", site)
        log.info("user: %s, passwd: %s", plain_user, plain_password)
        yield site

def main_decryptor(firefox_profile_directory, password, thunderbird=False):
    'Main function to get Firefox and Thunderbird passwords'
    if not firefox_profile_directory:
        if thunderbird:
            dir = '~/.thunderbird/'
        else:
            dir = '~/.mozilla/firefox'
        firefox_profile_directory = get_default_firefox_profile_directory(dir)

    decryptor = NativeDecryptor(firefox_profile_directory, password)

    for site in decryptor.decrypted_sites():
        print site

if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = OptionParser()
    parser.add_option("-d", "--directory", default=None,
                  help="the Firefox profile directory to use")
    parser.add_option("-p", "--password", default=None,
                  help="the master password for the Firefox profile")
    parser.add_option("-l", "--loglevel", default=LOGLEVEL_DEFAULT,
                  help="the level of logging detail [debug, info, warn, critical, error]")
    parser.add_option("-t", "--thunderbird", default=False, action='store_true',
                  help="by default we try to find the Firefox default profile."
                  " But you can as well ask for Thunderbird's default profile."
                  " For a more reliable way, give the directory with -d.")
    parser.add_option("-n", "--native", default=True, action='store_true',
                  help="use the native decryptor, i.e. make Python use "
                  "libnss directly instead of invoking the helper program"
                  "DEFUNCT! this option will not be checked.")
    parser.add_option("-e", "--external", default=False, action='store_true',
                  help="use an external program `pwdecrypt' to actually "
                    "decrypt the passwords. This calls out a lot and is dead "
                    "slow. "
                    "You need to use this method if you have a password "
                    "protected database though.")
    options, args = parser.parse_args()

    loglevel = {'debug': logging.DEBUG, 'info': logging.INFO,
                'warn': logging.WARN, 'critical':logging.CRITICAL,
                'error': logging.ERROR}.get(options.loglevel, LOGLEVEL_DEFAULT)
    logging.basicConfig(level=loglevel)
    log = logging.getLogger()

    password = options.password

    if not options.external:
        sys.exit (main_decryptor(options.directory, password, thunderbird=options.thunderbird))
    else:
        for site in get_firefox_sites_with_decrypted_passwords(options.directory, password):
            print site

See the related discussion in the mozilla fora.

4
  • The linked discussion doesn't have the code and suggests downloading a portable Firefox. Running this script on my system produces a segmentation fault. pwdecrypt isn't on the system. What is it part of?
    – user199272
    Commented Nov 8, 2016 at 15:55
  • Thanks, Stéphane! Do you happen to know how to query Google Chrome's saved passwords?
    – Tim
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 19:54
  • Found a working solution here axllent.org/docs/view/export-chrome-passwords
    – Tim
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 20:09
  • I was wondering how the python script manages to descrypte the usernames and passwords in signon.sqlite? Does it invoke firefox to do so via asking me for my master password?
    – Tim
    Commented May 7, 2018 at 18:38
4

Unluckily, both Python scripts linked in the other answers fail similarly with a segmentation fault on my system. What I found is nss-passwords, which seems to be written in OCAML and C, so I´m not sure it works every where, but it´s at least easily installable in Debian based distros like Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install nss-passwords
[...]
$ nss-passwords stackoverflow
[it asks for the main password]
| https://stackoverflow.com | [email protected] | this_is_not_my_real_password |

I just used it to find the password for stackverflow so I could write about it and it works great! How meta is that!

2
  • Perhaps the segfault had the same cause as what I fixed recently on firefox_decrypt
    – unode
    Commented Feb 10, 2017 at 18:27
  • This still works in 2022. Not sure about the state of the other answers
    – smac89
    Commented Aug 18, 2022 at 15:52
3

Although file shows key3.db to be in Berleley DB 1.85 format, it isn't the case. It's in a Mozilla proprietary format. It is used to encrypt the usernames and passwords in signons.sqlite.

You can view the date in signons.sqlite (but not decypher the usernames and passwords) using sqlite3:

sqlite3 signons.sqlite
SQLite version 3.8.5 2014-06-04 14:06:34
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> .tables
moz_deleted_logins  moz_disabledHosts   moz_logins        
sqlite> select * from moz_logins;
1|https://bugs.archlinux.org||https://bugs.archlinux.org|user_name|password|MDoEEP...
[more here]

To search for a specific website use a basic SQL query:

sqlite> select * FROM moz_logins WHERE hostname LIKE "%arch%";
32|https://bbs.archlinux.org||https://bbs.archlinux.org|req_username|req_password|MD...

Note that they search phrase is in double quotes. The % is a wildcard, therefore in the example above it looks for any text, followed by arch, followed by any text. This covers http://bbs.archlinux.org.

1
  • Thanks. I tried your command. Not return anything however (updated in my post).
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:42
3

In Ubuntu/Debian you can install nss-passwords package, that can be used to get the passwords one by one (by site). You can specify a dir that contains cert8.db, key3.db, logins.json signons.sqlite files (default will try to find Firefox profile) with command nss-passwords -d <path-with-files> <site-url-to-query>.

The name os the sites can be queried by looking in the clear text file logins.json in newer versions of firefox (> 32) or using sqlite3 signons.sqlite and then select * from moz_logins;

For example, if you want to query all sites, with a new Firefox profile, you have to copy files cert8.db, key3.db, logins.json to a directory and run:

cat logins.json | jq ".logins[].hostname" | uniq | xargs nss-passwords -d .

Note: jq is a tool to handle JSONs.

2

The file key3.db contains the key that is used to encrypt the passwords stored in signons.sqlite.

As it is in a custom format, a special program is needed to work with it, instead of using standard database commands.

There seems to be a tool for Windows to make use of the key3.db file, see the answer on this question on SO: What is the encryption key of key3.db database in firefox profile?

The answer of @StéphaneChazelas provides a python script that should work on Linux;
Latest version here: https://hg.cryptobitch.de/firefox-passwords/file/

8
  • Thanks. what are the roles of key3.db and signons.sqlite? (1) Is signons.sqlite the database that stores the username and passwords of website logins (e.g. sourceforge.net/account/login.php)? (2) Do you mean that key3.db a database storing the master key I set in Firefox to access its stored passwords for website logins? There is only one master key, so why do we need a database to store one master key?
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:13
  • @Tim On 1, yes. On 2, yes too - but what is the master key? It can only be some kind of security be obscurity, because I can open my browser and look at the passwords without that key. That may be the reason it's not documented in detail :) Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:18
  • "What is the master key?" When you try to view the password of each website from Firefox Preferences, if you haven't set up the master key, you are free to view website login passwords, but if you have set up the master key, you have to provide it before you can view the website login passwords
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:24
  • Yes, makes sense, it will contain the master key if set. I was assuming there is also a key in use if no master key is set in firefox, but not sure. Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 15:30
  • Without the master key set, will the login passwords show themselves directly, when you query in sqlite3?
    – Tim
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 16:02
0

Query Firefox Password Database - Now made easy

Linked code in the earlier answers is no longer online.

Fortunately the very active "Firefox Decrypt" project allows very easy command line access to the Firefox password database.

https://github.com/unode/firefox_decrypt

Firefox Decrypt is a tool to extract passwords from Mozilla (Firefox™, Waterfox™, Thunderbird®, SeaMonkey®) profiles

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