Something I’ve been messing with over the last day or two: Blowfish encrypted bookmarks for Firefox. I think that it’s more-or-less working, and I thought it might be cool to make it available for testing. Take note, I did say testing!
If you want to test it, please take very careful note of the following: -
- There might be bugs! You have been warned!
- The extension uses Blowfish to encrypt and decrypt bookmark titles and associated URLs. If you forget your encryption key, I can’t help you!
- Only the contents of Bookmarks Toolbar and Bookmarks Menu are encrypted.
- Live Bookmarks are NOT encrypted. This is due to the fact that Live Bookmarks with an encrypted feed URL causes errors when Firefox starts up.
- Bookmarks of type RESULT_TYPE_QUERY (e.g. Most Visited) are not encrypted, mainly because I can’t work out how to change the place: URI.
- If you have a lot of bookmarks, the decryption process can cause a delay of a few seconds when Firefox starts up.
- As above, the encryption process can cause a delay of a few seconds when Firefox closes down.
- Encryption will only take place when Firefox is shutdown from the main browser window. In other words, if you, for example, have the Error Console open and close the main browser window before you close the Error Console, no encryption will take place.
- Just in case you missed it, if you forget your encryption key, I can’t help you!
Before you install and test the extension, I very strongly recommend that you make a backup copy of places.sqlite. If you don’t know where to find places.sqlite, please DON’T install the extension! If you don’t know how to make a backup copy of places.sqlite, please DON’T install the extension! If you install the extension and end up screwing up your bookmarks, if you didn’t make a backup copy of places.sqlite, I don’t want to hear about it!
Apart from all of the above mentioned exceptions, if you test the extension and find bugs or have recommendations for improvements, please report them back into this blog posting.
You can get Encrypted Bookmarks for Firefox here.
Hi,
I am computer savvy. I did a search and could not find a file named “places.sqlite”. Where is it? Does FF 3 have or keep bookmark BAK files? Since I can not find the other file?
Does EB work with FF 3x? It installed OK and encrypted OK but when I start FF it does not ask me for the decrypt password until I go to close FF. What do I need to do to get it to decrypt upon opening?
Regards,
Robert
Hi Robert,
places.sqlite should be in your Firefox profile folder. Bookmark backups are stored in a folder called bookmarksbackups which is also in your profile folder.
Encrypted Bookmarks only works with Firefox 3. It’ll only ask for a decryption key if your bookmarks were encrypted when Firefox shutdown.
HI Mike,
I perhaps did not ask the question correctly Let me try again.
1) If I wanted can I reinstall the bookmarks from the bookmarksbackups folder?
2)If it asks for a decryption key on shutdown how then do you get it to start up decrypted? I thought that it encrypted when it shuts down and decrypts when it opens.? Did I understand something different? You seem to be saying that it decrypts the bookmarks on shutdown? After start up the are encrypted. Please help me know the sequence.
Found places.sqlite file. what is it used for?
Thanks.
Regards,
Robert
HI Mike,
I just sent you a note but do not know if it got to you. If so disregard this one.
I am confused by your explanation. Let me ask my question again. It sounds like I enter the password on shut down? It appears to do some sort of encryption then, When it starts up it doesn’t decrypt. Can you explain the operational sequences please.
Can I restore the bookmarkbackus folder? or is everything encrypted?
It all seemed to work OK until I tried to decrypt – then the sequence look weird and the Firefox program seems to be running but displays at the top banner “not Responding”. A bit confusing to me – it looks like the disk is still doing some operations. Can you explain what I should observe.
Thanks,
Robert
Hi Mike,
I sent you an email 2 days ago. Can you let me know if you got it. I will resend it if you did not.
I didn’t receive an email from you, but please don’t email me as I’m very likely to ignore it.
The process is very simple. When Firefox shuts down, the Encrypted Bookmark extension should ask for and encryption key. If you supply a key, happens to the bookmarks, and Firefox will ask for a decryption key when it starts up.
If you do supply a key when Firefox shuts down, your bookmarks should be encrypted. When you restart Firefox, it should then ask for a decryption key.
OK Mike – Last question. Pleaes read an respond – PLEASE
BTW I am happy to give you feedback unless you will be doing no further development on this extension…let me know
Since it is not asking for a decryption on opening of Fire fox does that mean an bug? or can I force it to ask for a decryption password?
Regards,
Robert
If it isn’t asking for a decryption key on start-up, it means that the bookmarks were not encrypted on shut-down.
What is the point of forcing the extension to ask for a decryption key? That would only force it to decrypt something which hasn’t been encrypted.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for your kind attention and I apologize for bothering you, but do appreciate your responses.
The only reason I made that comments is because the bookmarks in the pull down menu are not readable. They are a scramble of Alpha numerics. So I thought that it was unusual that the extension wouldn’t know that and ask for a decrypting password. So it sounds like there is no way of install the extension again, or a different version of FF or something that would alert the extension to ask for a decrypt word?
Robert
If your bookmarks are a scramble of alphanumerics it means they are encrypted.
Have a look on the about:config page for a pref called bmenc.isEncrypted and set its value to true. Restart Firefox and it should ask for the decryption key.
At this point you need to restore places.sqlite
Thanks for the chat and help.
Best of everything,
Robert
Good thing you stress to backup “places.sqlite” because when one installs/uninstalls Encrypted Bookmarks , even using password correctly , the bookmarks are still encrypted on Firefox restart (after uninstalling) !!
It seems to need a little more work.
Agreed
I think it needs a lot more work. The encryption/decryption seems to work fine, but it’s the way in which it ties into Firefox which is all wrong, and I’m not sure how to integrate it nicely and cleanly.
Re bookmarks: I find it highly inconvenient that I need to import bookmarks into a browser. I have a bunch of address data in a folder on my hard drive and on my USB-Pen. I want to go to any computer and plug-in the USB-pen and access my www & html’s (addresses, bookmarks) right there, no copy to or import into a place I don’t own or control.
I use PGP to cipher my files on my computers. Can not do on USB pen because i can not uncipher it on a machine I don’t own. Sel-extracting files are a no-no at most public computer places.
May be I gave you a valid idea?.
Thanks for the Wizz reader. I have yet to learn how to use it sensibly.
Hi Suziexceptmydad,
Weird name
I hope that most of what you’ve heard about me has been good?
And it isn’t any RSS Feed that I’ve been having difficulty with. It is the little encrypted bookmarks extension, but I think I’ve worked out a nice way for it to work. Now all I need to do it find the time to code it
@Me (Sounds like I’m talking to myself): My plan is to have a single folder that is encrypted. Only bookmarks in that folder will be encrypted. Only problem is trying to find time to code the changes.