The master password in Firefox is used to add another layer of security to your password system.  What would happen though if you setup a master password, got in an accident, were in a coma for six months, and then once you awoke you couldn’t remember what your master password was set to?  I’ll help you reset or recover your Firefox master password with one simple tool.

Recover the Firefox Master Password with FireMaster

FireMaster claims to be the first ever tool built to recover the lost master password in Firefox.  In all honesty, you are really hacking yourself – because the tool uses a combination of techniques such as dictionary, hybrid and brute force to recover the master password from the Firefox key database file.  Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

You can pick up your own version of the digital download here.

Resetting the Master Password in Firefox

When you reset the master password in Firefox, you will remove all the stored password information – so that is not a very good route to go, if you really need that login information back. 

With that warning said – point your browser towards:

chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xul

Copy and paste that into your address bar, then hit the Enter key. upon doing so you will be asked if you really want to reset the master password, and remove your stored information, passwords, private keys and more.  Click the Reset button to reset the Firefox master password for good.

So there you have two route to take next time you awake from your own six month coma. The best route of all to take would be do not forget your password, but if your finding this from a Google search – it might be too late for sage words.

If your PC is used by more than one person though there is a security issue you may need to worry about when it comes to showing others your login information.

By default, if you go under Tools, then your Options and then the Security section, anybody could get in there and look at your user names and passwords – as long as they had access to your PC. To fix that you want to set a master password.

First go to Tools and then Options. From there your Firefox options window should pop up and you want to go to the Security tab. From there check the box that says “Use a master password”. Now another box should come up asking you for your master password – type it in twice, and make sure you remember it.

Now when you go to Tools, Options, Security and then under the Passwords section hit the “Show Passwords…” button it should ask you for your master password before showing all your saved password information.