News | KeeFox

KeeFox 0.9.4 released

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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