KeeFox

KeeFox 1.0

Tue, 01 May 2012 19:28:20 +0100

Version 1.0 of KeeFox has been released!

KeeFox adds free, secure and easy to use password management features to Firefox which save you time and keep your private data safe and under your control. KeeFox connects Firefox to KeePass Password Safe, the most popular open source (and free) password manager.

Four years, thousands of beta testers and seven international translations later I am delighted to say that KeeFox can be considered a stable add-on that is suitable for everyone to use.

Learn more and find out why hundreds of people think KeeFox deserves a 5 out of 5 star rating on the official home page: keefox.org

KeeFox is available for download from the official Firefox add-ons website. Linux and Mac support is in beta testing so you’ll need to install the development version at the bottom of this page.

In response to many requests I have begun accepting donations so if you would like to express your appreciation for KeeFox in this way you can now do so via a contribution on the addons.mozilla.org site .

Version 1.0 has been subject to some “last minute” polishing for a number of months now and online help resources have been greatly improved during that time. While the KeeFox features have not been improved a huge amount in the past 6 months, I have been hard at work on version 1.1 which will be available for beta testing soon. Version 1.1 will bring improved support for users with multiple databases and a few bug fixes.

I would like to know what you think of KeeFox and what improvements you would like to see before we reach version 2.0 so please take a moment to fill in the user survey

The launch of version 1.0 coincides with a revamped KeeFox website which I think makes it easier to navigate and more pleasing on the eye; again, feedback is welcome!

I’m extremely grateful to everyone that has helped KeeFox reach this milestone; while I can’t list everyone here there are few that warrant particular attention.

Ben Roberts: KeeFox logo design and early alpha testing
Ken Bass: Development work to support Linux and Mac (currently under beta testing in version 1.1)
The team of translators on babelzilla.org: Lakrits, Ramesses, yfdyh000, meilon, softcat, Siggi0904, maniosus and degit

PS: The official version number is 1.0.2 for administrative reasons

KeeFox 0.9.5 and Linux/Mac support

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:07:18 +0000

Version 0.9.5 has just been submitted to Mozilla for review so will hopefully be winging its way to you through the usual update channel within a week.

Changes this time:

HTTP Auth login boxes now correctly state when no matching passwords were found
New domain matching rules prevent IP addresses from matching incorrectly
Improvements to message/tip display (easier to prevent the same message appearing again once you’ve seen it)
Miscellaneous changes to meet recent Firefox add-on best practice guidelines
Dutch translation added

Also note that (thanks to krbvroc1) you can now run KeeFox on Linux and Mac systems but we’ve not had enough beta testing feedback to enable support outside of the development channel. In fact to my knowledge, it has not ever been installed on a Mac, although in theory it “should work”.

Please install version 0.9.5b if you want to help us test KeeFox on Linux or Mac systems. There are no significant changes between version 0.9.5b and 0.9.5 so you’re not missing out by moving to the development channel.

More details are available in the release notes for 0.9.5b (look a little bit down the versions page)

0.9.6b will be pushed to the development channel in a couple of weeks so if there are any important changes that need to be made to improve Linux and Mac support it would be great to hear about them soon.

KeeFox 0.9.4 released

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:30:35 +0000

Version 0.9.4 has been added to the Mozilla add-ons site so you should receive an automatic update in due course.

This version works with KeePass 2.18. It also adds a new message display service aimed primarily at new users (but which I hope to extend to delivery of important security notifications in the future).

There are a number of other changes too: fixing some bugs, improving the translations for some languages and making some fairly invisible improvements.

Full list of changes:

Works with KeePass 2.18 (and installs it by default for new users)
.NET installer is now .NET 4 (Client Profile)
Firefox addon messaging service (FAMS) added to help new users with handy tips, other important messages and potentially future security notifications - see https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/keefox/wiki/Manual/Technical%20architecture/FAMS for more details
Fixed bug that caused old style HTTP realm data, priority selection and alternative URL data to be lost under some circumstances during migration to the current advanced string formatting scheme
Users of FF4 and above can now setup KeeFox automatically even if they have non-latin characters in their profile path
Fixes #116 (bad regexp in any entry breaks keefox) - KeeFox no longer breaks and also notifies the user of the problematic regular expression
Locales updated
.NET framework detection considered successful if 2 or 4 installed (also should work on x64 FF builds now)
New version of Jayrock libraries added; modified to work in .NET 4 Client Profile
Projects/solution source code upgraded to run on VS2010
other minor changes

Tutorial improved

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:14:02 +0000

A revamped tutorial has just been switched on. The fundamental principles highlighted in the tutorial have not been significantly changed but the process should now be more streamlined. Additionally, new users are now encouraged to complete at least the first three steps of the tutorial (instead of four).

A fresh new look should help everyone to concentrate on the important messages and familiarise themselves with KeeFox more quickly.

What do you think? How could it be improved in future? Are there any concepts missing that should be added into the tutorial?

A link to the tutorial is displayed after Keefox is successfully set up and can also be found in the KeeFox main menu (help / getting started).

KeePass 2.18 compatibility

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:23:09 +0000

Thanks to everyone that notified me of the problems with the recently released version of KeePass.

I hope to release a new version in 4-6 weeks with a beta available within a few weeks. In the mean time, the existing version of KeeFox will continue to work with KeePass 2.17. As with the previous problematic KeePass upgrade, your upgrade route will be much simplified if you continue using KeePass 2.17 until after you are running a new version of KeeFox*. There are currently no known security problems with KeePass 2.17 that necessitate an immediate upgrade.

This time there were many changes to KeePass that prevented KeeFox from working. I was notified of at least some of these changes in advance of the release of KeePass 2.18 but did not have a development environment to work and test with until after the official release last week.

I have identified a way to get KeeFox to work with 2.18 and most users shouldn’t notice any differences but in light of the following major changes to the KeeFox code I have decided to push the fix to existing users quite cautiously - there’s no point in risking breaking KeeFox for everyone just so that some people can run the very latest version of KeePass.

For anyone interested, the two major changes to the KeeFox code are:
1) I’ve upgraded (and then customised) the Jayrock JSON-RPC server bundled within KeePassRPC
2) I’ve set .NET 4 as the default runtime for KeeFox users who don’t yet have a copy of .NET installed

This work required an upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 and I took that opportunity to make a clean break from the existing SVN revision control at Sourceforge; KeeFox code is now available on github, details will be announced in the coming weeks.

* Or at least downgrade to 2.17 before installing the new version of KeeFox.

KeeFox 0.9.3 released

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 02:14:02 +0100

A new version of KeeFox has just been approved on the official Firefox add-ons site.

This version supports KeePass 2.17 (and earlier). There are a few other improvements too - full details are in the release notes for version 0.9.3a on this page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keefox/versions/

I recommend installing the updated version of KeeFox while still running version 2.16 (or earlier) of KeePass. If you have already upgraded to KeePass 2.17 you will need to “paste and go” this URL in your location bar and click “Upgrade KeeFox”:
chrome://keefox/content/install.xul?upgrade=1

A change was made to KeePass in version 2.17 which means that KeeFox 0.9.2 and earlier no longer work. Specifically, the KeePassRPC KeePass plugin no longer loads (it gives an error message saying it is incompatible with the new version of KeePass). This sort of plugin incompatibility issue was supposed to have been eliminated with the new “plgx” plugin format but there are evidently still a few edge cases that can cause a problem and KeeFox was the unlucky plugin this time around.

Dominik (the main developer of KeePass) has kindly agreed to try to give me advance notice of future KeePass releases so emergency fixes like this can be developed before the new KeePass version is made publicly available. Neither me nor Dominik can make any promises but we think the 2.17 upgrade problems are atypical of past and future KeePass upgrades.

Special thanks have to go to the addons.mozilla.org team (particularly Jorge Villalobos) for fast tracking this new version through their thorough and often lengthy review processes!

Sorry for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused you.

NB: A few bits of text are “NOT TRANSLATED” for non-English users - they shouldn’t be crucial to understanding the add-on and will be replaced with correct translated versions as soon as possible. Sorry, this decision was the lesser of two evils!

Translating KeeFox

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:20:35 +0100

KeeFox is now ready for an international audience with translations into non-English languages. Incomplete Swedish and Russian translations are available in version 0.9 but complete versions have already been submitted ready for the version 0.9.1 release, along with Chinese (Simplified).

It will be great if we can increase the number of translations over the next few weeks so that version 0.9.1 can be understood by as many people as possible. If you (or anyone you know) are willing to contribute to the translation of KeeFox into other languages please register on Babelzilla and follow the simple instructions they provide.

See:
Babelzilla
The KeeFox section on Babelzilla
KeeFox thread on the Babelzilla Discussion forum (please direct all translation related queries here)

Note that there is currently no way to modify the text of the KeePassRPC plugin. If anyone has any time to implement a suitable localisation system for KeePass PLGX plugins I’m sure it will be appreciated by many KeePass plugin authors. I’m thinking maybe a seperate plugin or patch for KeePass that allows runtime modification of strings; it would be good if PLGX compilation were not a requirement for translators. Please post any further thoughts or offers of help in the main KeeFox forum or KeePass forum (depending on how specific your comment or solution is).

KeeFox 0.9 Release candidate available

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:58:03 +0100

You can now download version 0.9b from the development channel at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keefox/

Users already subscribed to the development channel (i.e. running 0.8.22b at the moment) will be upgraded automatically.

You can easily swap back to 0.8.21 if you find a problem with 0.9 so please try it out and post in the forum if you do find any new issues.

Assuming a successful beta testing period, this version will be rolled out to all 0.8.21 users in a couple of weeks.

This version is suitable for widespread use but may still contain a few bugs.

This version has a few improvements to the features added in 0.8.22, updates the default version of KeePass to 2.16 and adds the first two (incomplete) translations:

Swedish
Russian

The previously unannounced version 0.8.22 also changes:

FIXED: Editing passwords with KeePassRPC GUI sometimes showed an empty password
Master key entry dialog focuses correctly on all versions of Windows (most of the time)
Improved form filling for some types of form

Note that earlier versions of Firefox 6 had a bug which prevented KeeFox from working. FF6b3+ should work fine, as should Firefox 7a*.

A full record of changes is available in the changelog as usual: http://keefox.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/keefox/trunk/Firefox%20addon/CHANGELOG.txt

Before releasing version 1.0 I will improve documentation / help, add as many translations as possible and of course fix any bugs that I can.

KeeFox 0.8.21 released

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:21:11 +0100

You can now download version 0.8.21 from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keefox/

This is a required upgrade for all users. You must upgrade before the end of June 2011 or KeeFox will stop working. Firefox should automatically prompt you to install a new version soon and future versions of KeeFox will keep up to date automatically through the official Firefox add-ons site.

Apart from the switch to an automatic update system, there are a few other minor improvements too. Full details are available in the changelog as usual: http://keefox.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/keefox/trunk/Firefox%20addon/CHANGELOG.txt

KeeFox is on the official Firefox add-ons website

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:21:26 +0100

I’m pleased to announce that KeeFox has recently been accepted into the official Firefox add-ons directory and can now be found at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keefox/

After the 30th of June 2011 versions of KeeFox previously downloaded from this website will cease to function so you will need to install the version from the Firefox add-ons directory sometime in the next month. This expiry time is simply to ensure that no-one gets stuck using potentially insecure old versions of KeeFox; all future updates will be delivered automatically in the same way as most Firefox add-ons you have installed (so a fixed expiry time is no longer required).

Version 0.8.20 is currently available and can be installed from the Mozilla add-ons website even if you have already installed version 0.8.20 from this website. Since future updates will be installed automatically it shouldn’t make a big difference whether you install KeeFox from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keefox/ now or when the next update is announced.

Note that this does not change the beta status of KeeFox. I still think it is nearly ready for an official “1.0” release and the Mozilla add-ons review team think that it is “good enough” to be included in the official directory but there is still work to be done, especially with respect to documentation.

Getting started tutorial improved

Sun, 22 May 2011 02:06:38 +0100

The interactive tutorial at http://tutorial.keefox.org has been upgraded. Please complete it if you’re unsure about any KeeFox features, particularly before asking for help in the forum. These are the main improvements since the initial tutorial was launched:

Added some troubleshooting tips on the first page
Created a demonstration of customising KeeFox auto-fill and auto-submit behaviour per entry
Added an example of recording a non-text field (specifically, a radio button)
Uploaded some new and updated screenshots
The last two steps have been marked as “advanced” - they are still useful for some people but probably not as important as the first 4 steps.
Streamlined the path through the 6 steps
Clearer form layouts

Please use KeeFox version 0.8.20 or higher to complete the tutorial. Earlier ones will probably work but that’s not been tested.

KeeFox 0.8.20 released

Sun, 22 May 2011 00:49:42 +0100

Version 0.8.20 has just been released - download it now.

There may still be a few bugs here and there but I think the long list of improvements since version 0.8.10 warrants a release now.

There have been over 15 bug fixes along with some new features, the most notable being:

Several username/password field matching improvements
HTTP Auth dialogs now prompt to save password

All feedback is welcome, as always. Please submit support or bug requests to the forum: http://keefox.org/help/forum

KeeFox 0.8.19 experimental version released

Tue, 17 May 2011 20:42:54 +0100

0.8.19 was released shortly after 0.8.17 in order to fix a few bugs that crept into version 0.8.17. All experimental users should upgrade to this new version.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

KeeFox 0.8.17 experimental version released

Sun, 15 May 2011 20:43:56 +0100

Another release candidate candidate is available for download.

This version now works with websites that have HTML5 form elements, has more accurate HTTP Auth dialog entry matching, handles protected password fields correctly and works with password database paths that contain Unicode characters.

Please could all experimental version users upgrade to this version because:

1) You might not know if your form filling accuracy is affected by some of the bugs fixed in 0.8.17

2) It will help give me confidence to release 0.8.17 to the wider group of KeeFox users and stop having to write “release candidate candidate”

Please let me know what you think of the latest version!

Subscribe to KeeFox news by Email

Mon, 09 May 2011 01:04:15 +0100

For those who prefer e-mail over RSS news readers, you’ll be pleased to know I’ve now added a link on the left-side of the KeeFox website that lets you “Subscribe to KeeFox news by Email“, courtesy of the Google Feedburner service.

KeeFox 0.8.15 experimental version released

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 01:38:22 +0100

A new experimental version is available at http://keefox.org/download/experimental-version. There are a couple of important bug fixes including one where some other parts of Firefox stopped working when KeeFox was installed so I recommend all users of 0.8.12-14 should upgrade. Users of 0.8.10 should not be affected by this bug.

The other improvements since 0.8.12 are:

Improved password field matching
HTTP Auth dialogs now respect global and site-specific “offer to save passwords” settings

KeeFox 0.8.12 experimental version released

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:57:09 +0100

This new version is a release candidate candidate. Please help to test it so that I do not have to say that too many times!

KeeFox is now “feature complete” as far as version 1.0 is concerned - there are still many features I want to add later in the year but for the next few months I will be concentrating on fixing bugs and ensuring that the documentation and help resources are up to scratch before the release of version 1.0. There may still be the occasional new feature but only if it’s a low-risk with a high benefit to the “average” user. Further details on future releases with new features will follow in the coming months but in the mean time please help me test this version so that I can have confidence in its suitability for a final release and hence get started on the “post 1.0” feature requests as soon as possible.

Key changes in this release (since 0.8.10) are:

HTTP Auth dialogs now prompt to save passwords
A few other HTTP Auth dialog improvements
Setup process displays a warning to close KeePass if an existing KeePass installation is detected on the PC
A few improvements to the insert process of KeeFox sample entries
Improvements to the detection of which form fields should be filled in with which bits of KeePass data
Fixed: older “Alternative URLs” did not always appear in the “URLs” tab in the “edit entry” KeePass entry tab
Improvement to detection of matching entries: hostname matching is now case-insensitive

KeeFox 0.8.10 released

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:30:15 +0000

A new KeeFox version 0.8.10 is now available on the main download page. This is still beta quality but I think it’s close to a release candidate so please speak up if you find any problems. Top 10 highlights since 0.8.4 include:

Support for Firefox 4
New “KeeFox” tab in the KeePass “edit group” and “edit entry” dialogs, giving easy access to features such as:
- Multiple matching URLs
- Custom form field editing
- Auto-fill and auto-submit override options
Entries can now be edited from the right-click / context menu on the matched login menu / button
The KeeFox options panel has been re-written to include options that were previously hidden and clarify the purpose of some options
You can now choose to save entries straight into a sub-group or “Never for this site”
Improved detection of the “best” entry to use and the “best” form to put the entry into
“monitor[ing] each web page for new forms” no longer causes a “flashing” effect on the toolbar
A new “location manager” and an ability to set different home groups for different locations via the “edit group” KeePass feature
HTTP Auth improvements (now uses the “realm” to improve auto-fill/submit accuracy and adds a tooltip showing the entry title)
You decide! There are scores of other changes so maybe your favourite improvement, new feature or bug fix deserves the #10 spot?

Download KeeFox 0.8.10

NB: Version 0.8.10 contains one fix since the experimental 0.8.8: Multiple “additional URLs” no longer cause an entry to be ignored.

KeeFox 0.8.8 - take 2

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:09:57 +0000

Version 0.8.8 is now re-released on the experimental download page.

It requires and includes KeePassRPC version 0.8.9 so hopefully a standard upgrade through Firefox will do the trick but if you do have problems, please delete the KeePassRPC plugin from the KeePass plugins folder. There also may be an issue with the release candidate of Firefox 4 which means that you should wait until Firefox has started before opening KeePass to trigger the start of the upgrade procedure - I’ll investigate that more in a few days and release a fixed version if necessary.

PS: If you’re interested, the problem with the initial upload was that I forgot to include a tiny icon in the KeePassRPC.plgx package.

KeeFox 0.8.8 experimental version released

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:17:59 +0000

Here’s another experimental version for your enjoyment.

This one has several new features and some important bug fixes and improvements to existing features. Please upgrade if you’re running an experimental version at the moment; I hope to release this as a final beta version before Firefox 4 is officially released (a couple of weeks?) so all feedback can help me judge whether that is a good idea or not!

Highlights of this release are:

Fixed: Auto-submit on HTTP Auth dialogs no longer closes the parent window (often closing Firefox as a result)
Fixed: “monitor[ing] each web page for new forms” no longer causes a “flashing” effect on the toolbar
Changing options no longer requires a restart of Firefox
KeePass entry dialog editor KeeFox tab is now split into three sub-tabs to make it less cramped
Improvements to the handling of locations: a new location manager and the ability to set different home groups for different locations via the “edit group” KeePass feature
Improved detection of the “best” password when multiple entries exist for the same domain
More complete list of matched logins on pages with matches in more than one frame
Improvements to the installer including: no longer overwriting KeePass with the bundled version when manually setting the KeePass location
HTTP Auth improvements (now uses the “realm” to improve auto-fill/submit accuracy and adds a tooltip showing the entry title)