Browserpass - browser extension

Browserpass is a browser extension for zx2c4's pass, a UNIX based password store manager. It allows you to auto-fill or copy to clipboard credentials for the current domain, protecting you from phishing attacks.

In order to use Browserpass you must also install a companion native messaging host, which provides an interface to your password store.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Installation
  • Verifying authenticity of the Github releases
• Updates
• Usage
  • Organizing password store
  • First steps in browser extension
  • Available keyboard shortcuts
  • Password matching and sorting
  • Searching password entries
  • OpenID authentication
  • Modal HTTP authentication
  • Password store locations
• Options
  • A note about autosubmit
  • A note about OTP
• Usage data
• Security
• Privacy
• Requested permissions
• FAQ
  • Error: Unable to fetch and parse login fields
  • How to use the same username and password pair on multiple domains
  • Why Browserpass on Firefox does not work on Mozilla domains?
• Building the extension
  • Build locally
  • Load an unpacked extension
• Contributing

Requirements

• The latest stable version of Chromium or Firefox, or any of their derivatives.
• The latest stable version of gpg (having pass or gopass is actually not required).
• A password store that follows certain naming conventions

Installation

In order to install Browserpass correctly, you have to install two of its components:

• Native messaging host
• Browser extension for Chromium-based browsers (choose one of the options):
  • Install using a package manager for your OS (which will provide auto-update and keep extension in sync with native host app):
    • Arch Linux: browserpass-chromium, browserpass-chrome
    • Debian: webext-browserpass includes Chromium extension
  • Install the extension from Chrome Web Store (which will provide auto-updates)
  • Download browserpass-webstore.crx from the latest release and drag'n'drop it into chrome://extensions
    • This extension has the same ID as the one in Chrome Web Store, so when a new version will appear in Web Store, it will auto-update! Use if you want to be on latest and greatest version.
  • Download browserpass-github.crx from the latest release and drag'n'drop it into chrome://extensions
    • This extension has a different ID comparing to the one in Chrome Web Store, so you will not receive any auto-updates! Use for creating distro packages, or if you simply don't tolerate being forced to update when a new version is released.
  • Download browserpass-chromium.zip, unarchive and use Load unpacked extension in chrome://extensions in Developer mode.
• Browser extension for Firefox-based browsers (choose one of the options):
  • Install using a package manager for your OS (which will provide auto-update and keep extension in sync with native host app):
    • Arch Linux: browserpass-firefox
    • Debian: webext-browserpass includes Firefox extension
  • Install the extension from Firefox Add-ons (which will provide auto-updates)
  • Download browserpass-firefox.zip from the latest release, unarchive and use Load Temporary Add-on on about:debugging#addons (remember the extension will be removed after browser is closed!).

Verifying authenticity of the Github releases

All release files are signed with a PGP key that is available on maximbaz.com, keybase.io and various OpenPGP key servers. First, import the public key using any of these commands:

$ curl https://maximbaz.com/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
$ curl https://keybase.io/maximbaz/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
$ gpg --recv-keys EB4F9E5A60D32232BB52150C12C87A28FEAC6B20

To verify the signature of a given file, use $ gpg --verify <file>.asc.

It should report:

gpg: Signature made ...
gpg:                using RSA key 8053EB88879A68CB4873D32B011FDC52DA839335
gpg: Good signature from "Maxim Baz <...>"
gpg:                 aka ...
Primary key fingerprint: EB4F 9E5A 60D3 2232 BB52  150C 12C8 7A28 FEAC 6B20
     Subkey fingerprint: 8053 EB88 879A 68CB 4873  D32B 011F DC52 DA83 9335

Updates

If you installed the extension from a webstore, you will receive updates automatically.

If not, repeat the installation instructions for the extension.

IMPORTANT: Majority of the improvements require changing code in both browser extensions and the host application. It is expected that you will make sure to keep both components up to date.

Usage

Organizing password store

Browserpass was designed with an assumption that certain conventions are being followed when organizing your password store.

1. In order to benefit of phishing attack protection, a password entry file, or any of its parent folders, must contain a full domain name (including TLD like .com) and optionally port in their name in order to automatically match a website. However, entries which do not contain such a domain in their name may still be manually selected.

   File names are not allowed to contain \ or / characters, because both of them are considered to be path separators.

   Some good examples:

   ~/.password-store/
       accounts.google.com.gpg
       amazon.com.gpg
       github.com/
           personal.gpg
           work.gpg
   

2. Password must be defined on a line starting with password:, pass: or secret: (case-insensitive), and if all of these are absent, the first line in the password entry file is considered to be a password.

3. Username must be defined on a line starting with login:, username:, or user: (case-insensitive), and if all of these are absent, default username as configured in browser extension or in .browserpass.json of specific password store, and finally if everything is absent the file name is considered to be a username.

4. OpenID URL must be defined on a line starting with openid: (case-insensitive).

5. URL (only used for modal HTTP authentication!) must be defined on a line starting with url:, uri:, website:, site:, link: or launch: (case-insensitive).

If there are entries in your password store that you do not wish to see via Browserpass, you can ignore them by setting the ignore option in .browserpass.json. This is defined as either a string, or an array of strings, using the standard .gitignore syntax. Any matching files or directories will be completely ignored.

First steps in browser extension

Click on the icon or use Ctrl+Shift+L to open the Browserpass popup with the entries that match the current domain. You can also use Ctrl+Shift+F to fill the form with the best matching credentials without even opening the popup (the best matching credentials are the first ones on the list if you open the popup).

How to change the shortcut:

• Chromium: chrome://extensions/shortcuts
• Firefox: about:addons > Gear icon > Manage Extension Shortcuts

When Browserpass shows entries for a specific domain, you will see a badge with the domain name in the search input field:

If you want to intentionally disable phishing attack protection and search the entire password store for credentials, you must press Backspace to confirm this decision (domain badge will disappear), then use Browserpass normally.

Available keyboard shortcuts

Note: If the cursor is located in the search input field, every shortcut that works on the selected entry will be applied on the first entry in the popup list.

Password matching and sorting

When you first open the Browserpass popup, you will see a badge with the current domain name in the search input field:

This means that phishing attack prevention is enabled, and Browserpass is only showing you entries from your password store that match this domain.

In order for Browserpass to correctly determine matching entries, it is expected that your password store follows naming conventions (see Organizing password store). In particular your file or folder name must contain a domain with a valid TLD, i.e. not github.gpg, but github.com.gpg. If an attacker directed you to https://github.co/login (notice .co), Browserpass will not present github.com entry in the popup. However if you intentionally want to re-use the same credentials on multiple domains (e.g. amazon.com and amazon.co.uk), see How to use the same username and password pair on multiple domains.

Browserpass will display entries for the current domain, as well as all parent entries, but not entries from different subdomains. Suppose you are currently on https://v3.app.example.com, Browserpass will present all the following entries in popup (if they exist): v3.app.example.com, app.example.com, example.com; but it will not present entries like v2.app.example.com or wiki.example.com.

Browserpass can also distinguish credentials meant for different ports, so for example an entry example.com.gpg will show up in Browserpass popup when you browse example.com on any port, however an entry example.com:8080.gpg will only show up on 8080 port.

Finally Browserpass will also present entries that you have recently used on this domain, even if they don't actually meet the usual matching requirements. Suppose you have a password for amazon.com, but you open https://amazon.co.uk, at first Browserpass will present no entries (because nothing matches amazon.co.uk), but if you hit Backspace, find amazon.com and use it to login, next time you visit https://amazon.co.uk and open Browserpass, amazon.com entry will already be present.

The sorting algorithm implemented in Browserpass will use several intuitions to try to order results in the most expected way for a user:

1. If Browserpass was previously used on this domain, the first entry in the list will always be the most recently used one.
2. The rest of the available password entries will be sorted by the frequency of their usage, the more times a password was used, the higher it will be in the list.
3. Password entries with the identical usage counts are sorted by number of domain levels (specificity), i.e. wiki.example.com will be above example.com.
4. If all the above is equal, password entries are sorted alphabetically.

Searching password entries

The search box allows you to filter the list of currently displayed password entries in the popup. If you are searching for a password entry that is not already visible (for example if it doesn't match the current domain), first press Backspace to disable phishing attack protection and search the entire password store (see First steps in browser extension for details).

The search algorithm combines fuzzy and substring filtering approaches to achieve the most optimal results. The matching parts of each result are highlighted in a different color.

The first word in the search term activates the fuzzy filtering and takes into consideration password store name, folder and password entry name:

All subsequent words in the search term additionally filter our the remaining results using a substring filtering on folder and password entry name.

If you would prefer to use substring search only, simply enter a space character prior to your search term - this disables fuzzy search entirely.

OpenID authentication

OpenID is often used when someone doesn't trust (or doesn't want to need to trust) a website with their authentication credentials. For this reason, to prevent leaking credentials Browserpass considers OpenID and username+password authentications mutually exclusive: when openid: field is present in a password entry, Browserpass will only attempt to fill the OpenID field in a form, it will not even attempt to fill username and password fields, even if they are also present in the password entry, even if a website contains username and password fields in a login form.

Modal HTTP authentication

Due to the way browsers are implemented, browser extensions are only able to fill modal credentials (e.g. a popup for basic HTTP auth) for a website if the website in question has been opened by the extension. For this reason alone Browserpass contains functionality to open a URL associated with a password entry in the current or a new browser tab. However, please note that Browserpass is not intended as a bookmark manager.

If you want Browserpass to handle modal authentication, you must open these websites using Browserpass. This will cause Browserpass to open the target site, and transparently intercept and fill the authentication request. You will not normally see a login popup unless the credentials are incorrect.

Password store locations

Browserpass is able to automatically detect your password store location: it first checks the $PASSWORD_STORE_DIR environment variable. If that variable is not defined, it falls back to $HOME/.password-store.

Using the Custom store locations setting in the browser extension options, you are able to define one or more custom locations for password stores. There are no restrictions on where these may be located; they can be subfolders of the main password store, gopass mounts, or any other folder that contains password entries.

Options

The list of available options:

Browserpass allows configuring certain settings in different places places using the following priority, highest first:

1. Options defined in specific *.gpg files, only apply to these password entries:
   • autoSubmit
2. Options defined in .browserpass.json file located in the root of a password store:
   • autoSubmit
   • enableOTP
   • gpgPath
   • username
   • bgColor
   • color
   • ignore
3. Options defined in browser extension options:
   • Automatically submit forms after filling (aka autoSubmit)
   • Enable support for OTP tokens (aka enableOTP)
   • Default username (aka username)
   • Custom gpg binary (aka gpgPath)
   • Custom store locations
   • Custom store locations - badge background color (aka bgColor)
   • Custom store locations - badge text color (aka color)

A note about autosubmit

While we provide autosubmit as an option for users, we do not recommend it. This is because, while Browserpass' fill logic is robust and usually reliable, it occasionally gets things wrong and fills something (typically the username) into a field or form where it doesn't belong. If autosubmit is enabled, then this can result in Browserpass automatically submitting sensitive credentials into something that isn't a login form.

As the demand for autosubmit is extremely high, we have decided to provide it anyway - however it is disabled by default, and we recommend that users do not enable it.

A note about OTP

Tools like pass-otp make it possible to use pass for generating OTP codes, however keeping both passwords and OTP URI in the same location diminishes the major benefit that OTP is supposed to provide: two factor authentication. The purpose of multi-factor authentication is to protect your account even when attackers gain access to your password store, but if your OTP seed is stored in the same place, all auth factors will be compromised at once. In particular, Browserpass has access to the entire contents of your password entries, so if it is ever compromised, all your accounts will be at risk, even though you signed up for 2FA.

Browserpass is opinionated, it does not promote pass-otp and by default does not generate OTP codes from OTP seeds in password entries, even though there are other password managers that provide such functionality out of the box.

There are valid scenarios for using pass-otp (e.g. it gives protection against intercepting your password during transmission), but users are strongly advised to very carefully consider whether pass-otp is really an appropriate solution - and if so, come up with their own ways of accessing OTP codes that conforms to their security requirements. For the majority of people pass-otp is not recommended; using any phone app like Authy will be a much better and more secure alternative, because this way attackers would have to not only break into your password store, but they would also have to break into your phone.

If you still want the OTP support regardless, you may enable it in the Browserpass settings.

Usage data

Browserpass keeps metadata of recently used credentials in local storage and Indexed DB of the background page. This is first and foremost internal data to make Browserpass function properly, used for example to implement the Password matching and sorting algorithm, but nevertheless you might find it useful to explore using your browser's devtools. For example, if you are considering to rotate all passwords that you used in the past month (e.g. if you just found out that you had a malicious app installed for several weeks), you can retrieve such list from Indexed DB quite easily (open an issue if you need help).

For details on how we treat your data and how to remove it, consult Security and Privacy sections.

Security

Browserpass aims to protect your passwords and computer from malicious or fraudulent websites.

• To protect against phishing, only passwords matching the origin hostname are suggested or selected without an explicit search term.
• To minimize attack surface, the website is not allowed to trigger any extension action. Browserpass must be directly invoked by the user.
• Only data from the selected password entry is made available to the website.
• Given full control of the non-native component of the extension, an attacker may be able to list and decrypt .gpg files that can be accessed by the current user, but cannot execute arbitrary code outside of the browser.
• Browserpass does not attempt to secure the data it stores in browser local storage, it is assumed that users take precautions to protect their local file system (e.g. by using disk encryption).

Privacy

Browserpass does not send any telemetry data. All metadata that is collected in order for the extension to function correctly is stored only in local storage, and never leaves your browser.

This data is not synchronized between your computers, and upon removing Browserpass extension all the data will be automatically purged by your browser.

In order to remove all metadata, use the "Clear usage data" button in the extension options page or do it using your browser's devtools.

Requested permissions

Browserpass extension requests the following permissions:

FAQ

Error: Unable to fetch and parse login fields

If you can see passwords, but unable to fill forms or copy credentials, you likely have issues with your gpg setup.

First things first, make sure that gpg and some GUI pinentry are installed.

• on macOS many people succeeded with pinentry-mac
• on Linux users report that pinentry-gnome3 does not work well with GNOME 3 and Firefox, use e.g. pinentry-gtk-2
• on Windows WSL people succeded with pinentry-wsl-ps1

pinentry is the application that asks you your password to unlock PGP key when you for example use pass.

The selected pinentry must have GUI, console-based (like pinentry-tty or pinentry-curses) are not supported (unless you know what you are doing).

Ensure that gpg-agent process is actually running, if not you need to investigate how to enable it.

Finally configure a GUI pinentry program in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf:

pinentry-program /full/path/to/pinentry

You will need to restart gpg-agent using: $ gpgconf --kill gpg-agent

If Browserpass is unable to locate the proper gpg binary, try configuring a full path to your gpg in the browser extension settings or in .browserpass.json file in the root of your password store:

{
    "gpgPath": "/full/path/to/gpg"
}

How to use the same username and password pair on multiple domains

There are several ways to tell Browserpass to use the same pair of credentials on multiple domains, for example how to re-use an existing password entry amazon.com.gpg on a https://amazon.co.uk website without duplicating your credentials in multiple password files.

The first option is just to manually find the desired credentials and use them in Browserpass, in other words if you have credentials for amazon.com, but you are currently on https://amazon.co.uk, open Browserpass, hit Backspace to search the entire password store, find amazon.com and hit Enter to login. Next time you will open Browserpass on https://amazon.co.uk, the popup will already contain the amazon.com entry, because it was previously used on this website (for details see Password matching and sorting section).

The second option is to create a symlink file amazon.co.uk.gpg pointing to amazon.com.gpg in your password store, not only Browserpass, but pass itself will both recognize the symlink as an existing password entry. It's also possible to symlink an entire directory, rather than individual files.

If you simply want to re-use the same credentials on multiple subdomains of the same domain (e.g. app.example.com and wiki.example.com), you can also rename your password entry to a common denominator of the two subdomains, which in this example would be example.com.gpg (see Password matching and sorting).

Why Browserpass on Firefox does not work on Mozilla domains?

Firefox has decided to block all extensions from injecting any content scripts on their domains by default, sadly there's nothing we can do about it. It is possible to disable this behavior on a per-domain basis by changing the extensions.webextensions.restrictedDomains setting in about:config, however be aware that this affects all extensions, not just browserpass.

The full list of blocked domains at the time of writing is:

• accounts-static.cdn.mozilla.net
• accounts.firefox.com
• addons.cdn.mozilla.net
• addons.mozilla.org
• api.accounts.firefox.com
• content.cdn.mozilla.net
• content.cdn.mozilla.net
• discovery.addons.mozilla.org
• input.mozilla.org
• install.mozilla.org
• oauth.accounts.firefox.com
• profile.accounts.firefox.com
• support.mozilla.org
• sync.services.mozilla.com
• testpilot.firefox.com

Building the extension

Build locally

Make sure you have the latest stable Yarn installed.

See below the list of available make goals (check Makefile for more details). Use gmake on FreeBSD in place of make.

Load an unpacked extension

• For Chromium:
  • Go to chrome://extensions
  • Enable Developer mode
  • Click Load unpacked extension
  • Select browserpass-extension/chromium directory
• For Firefox:
  • Go to about:debugging#addons
  • Click Load temporary add-on
  • Select browserpass-extension/firefox directory

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch
   • git checkout -b my-new-feature
3. Commit your changes
   • git commit -am 'Add some feature'
4. Push the branch
   • git push origin my-new-feature
5. Create a new pull request