KeeFox 1.0

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

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

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.