Mozilla Firefox Compatibility

Is Password Manager compatible with Firefox browser ? Can both products coexist in Windows so that if the desired password is not found first in Firefox only then will Password Manager be accessed ? This approach allows for EZ implementation but Firefox’s password mgr may have to be turned off to allow it.

Bewildered (newbie) Bob

Hey Bob, can you provide more detail on this one? Bitwarden works best when you disable your browser’s native capability to manage credentials: Password Manager Browser Extensions | Bitwarden Help Center

Most commonly users will import their Firefox credentials into Bitwarden: Import Data from Firefox | Bitwarden Help Center

BitWarden works great with FF. I would suggest NOT to save your password in FF for security reasons. Rather, use the BW addon and simply configure it to use PIN unlock after you log in with your master password. Then ----- > FF does not know your password and it isn’t stored on your computer. When you enter your PIN BW will unlock, which is far quicker than entering a 20+ digit master password.

You may not be aware but if someone gets on your computer and enters a bogus/bad PIN 5 times BW will log them out completely. Nobody is going to guess a 8-9 digit PIN in only 5 trys!!

If FF password manager is “inactivated” will the stored passwords in FF remain avail for possible use if not already in BW ?? If not there is a possible exposure if the password is not avail when needed. Thanx.

Bewildered Bob

Does “credentials” include stored passwords ? Thanx.

Bewildered Bob

Hey @Bewildered_Bob yes, typically users will export their passwords from Firefox into Bitwarden for handling autofill.

Thanx again for quick reply.

(1) I assume that “credentials” include exported passwords that can be imported into BW which may already have some or all of these passwords. If so will newly imported FF passwords over-write the previously stored existing ones in BW ?

(2) worse case scenario - will FF retain original passwords JUST-IN-CASE after their password mgr is deactivated ?

Bewildered Bob

Importing into Bitwarden does not overwrite anything, so if some of your Firefox accounts are already in Bitwarden, importing the same accounts will create duplicate records in Bitwarden. It is best to take steps to avoid this (e.g., by purging the contents of the Bitwarden vault before importing, or by removing accounts the exist in Bitwarden from the Firefox .CSV export file before performing the import).

Instructions for how to disable the Firefox password manager are available here. After you disabled the browsers ability to save/autofill/suggest passwords, there is a separate step for deleting passwords that are already stored in Firefox (click Saved Passwords, and then Remove). You should remove the passwords stored by Firefox after you have exported them.

Do I understand correctly that by installing ONLY FF “browser extension” neither Web Vault nor Desktop app is REQUIRED ?? But one of them is recommended for fully functional BW ?

Bewildered Bob

That is pretty much accurate. The only exception would be if you want to configure your browser extension to be unlocked using biometrics (e.g., a fingerprint reader) instead of using your master password or PIN — if you want to use the biometrics functionality for unlocking the browser extension, then the Bitwarden Desktop app must be running in the background.

You only need to use the Web Vault if you want to perform one of the seven tasks I had outlined in my comment on your other thread: