How can I Stop Mavericks' Keychain from annoying me on startup to enter my keychain password?

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Jordy_99 Author

Level 1

0 points

How can I Stop Mavericks' Keychain from annoying me on startup to enter my keychain password?

Hi People,

here is my situation:

I use Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks and since I've upgraded from from Snow Leopard I have following problem:

I use another password from for my mac account and another password for my keychain because of security reasons

When I login, Mavericks annoys me every time on start up to access my keychain because I use iCloud's Calendar and Messages but I don't want to open my Keychain. I don't use iCloud Keychain to make clear.

These 4 services are asking for password continuously: com.apple.internetaccounts, com.apple.iCloudHelper, Messages Agent and CalendarAgent.

If I click Cancel and don't Enter the password the window is popping up again and again and never stops.

Is there any solution to stop it from annoying me and leave it locked?

I've also unchecked the "Keep login keychain unlocked" under --> Keychain Access --> Preferences --> First Aid

But it doesn't change my problem.

Thanks for your help and have a nice day.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 29, 2013 2:30 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Nov 29, 2013 3:12 AM in response to Jordy_99

Those processes need your iCloud password in order to work properly. They cannot obtain that password as long as the keychain remains locked. Since you have set the password for your keychain to something other than your login password, you will have to enter it in order to unlock the keychain.

From a security perspective, it makes no sense to secure your keychain with a different password, only to then set it to always stay unlocked. (By the way, note that the proper way to do that is not in the First Aid tab of the preferences, but by selecting the keychain and then using Edit -> Change Settings for Keychain "xxxx".)

I would recommend one of two things. First, you could set your login keychain password back to being the same as the login password, but then create a second keychain with a different password for all your more sensitive passwords. This will require a little more work, but it will allow you to have some passwords accessible automatically at login and others locked up behind an additional password.

The other choice would be to just forget all this entirely and leave everything in the login keychain, after setting its password back to being the login password.

The second choice may seem insecure, but keep in mind that the keychain can only be unlocked by successfully logging in to your account, with the original password. If someone gets hold of your Mac and resets your account password, that lets them log in, but does not give them access to your keychain! It will remain locked with the original login password, which is unknown to the attacker. So make your login password a secure password, make sure your Mac isn't set to automatically log in and make sure a password is required to wake it from sleep or screen saver.

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Answer 2

sjatkins

Level 1

9 points

Apr 3, 2014 2:28 PM in response to thomas_r.

So not only do I have to type my password, which says I am me but also play games with 1-6 (in my case) keychains as well? So if for security I change it once I have to change it in six places to be let alone to do my business? This is surely quite broken design. Even worse that several Apple products also ask for the password again for my iCloud account when Apple insists I change it periodically. For me this is five devices and more than a few separate Apple services on each. More bad design. Like why do I need to enter my iCloud password for both iCloud and IMessage when it has changed? For that matter, why doesn't the password just propagate from the cloud automagically to all currently logged in devices with the old password?

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