How to completely remove Keychain. Stop it Completely.

I don't buy this.

Keychain makes your system LESS secure because it stores passwords on your system.

FAIK ssh does NOT use it either. It has a .ssh directory in the user's home directory to store information.

w.pasman wrote:

I don't buy this.

Keychain makes your system LESS secure because it stores passwords on your system.

FAIK ssh does NOT use it either. It has a .ssh directory in the user's home directory to store information.

ssh can work with keychain

https://superuser.com/questions/88470/how-to-use-mac-os-x-keychain-with-ssh-keys

http://www.stormacq.com/mac-os-x-makes-handling-ssh-keys-easier/

If you have a perfect memory for lots of unique passwords, then not storing them anywhere is more secure. But if you can only remember a few passwords and reuse them on lots of web sites and for lots of Macs, then you are less secure because if someone figures out the password to one place, they can then guess other places it might be used.

For the rest of us, it is better to store passwords in a secure encrypted vault, which is what keychain is. You even have the option of using a different password from your login password for keychain, and you can set a timeout on how long it stays unlocked before requiring you to enter its password to unlock it.

Or you can use another password manager, but it is really the same thing as keychain. Unless of course you have that perfect memory for 100's of passwords to different web sites and machine accounts.

I dont have 100s of web sites with a password to start with. Second, many webpages require a password but have nothing serious going on (eg forums). You can see it all also without password. So why not reuse the password?

Anyway, stopping keychain completely is safer for me. I did not yet see how to do it.

I can break keychain (disable all its rights) but it still keeps nagging. Can I block it completely, including its nagging?

I dont have 100s of web sites with a password to start with.

What, no on-line banking? No Amazon account, where they have your credit card? Other on-line shopping vendors? Or Credit card accounts? No Netflix? No Flickr? No Facebook? No saving your WiFi password? No 401k/IRA accounts? No mail accounts? Medical account via work? ISP password? Cellular Carrier Password? Cable TV (unless they are also your ISP)? Utilities (Gas/Electric/Water) accounts?

Second, many webpages require a password but have nothing serious going on (eg forums). You can see it all also without password. So why not reuse the password?

That is a habit that can be hard to break, and can come back to bite you. But it is your information and on-line reputation that you are risking.

Anyway, stopping keychain completely is safer for me. I did not yet see how to do it.

I can break keychain (disable all its rights) but it still keeps nagging. Can I block it completely, including its nagging?

I do not know how. It is an integrated part of OS X. Everything requiring authentication feeds through the keychain library services.

You can switch operating systems. You Mac hardware will run Windows and Linux operating systems. Not sure what Windows does for password maintenance, but Linux does not have a built in password manager, so it will definitely not bug you about opening a password manager service.

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BobHarris wrote:

What, no on-line banking? No Amazon account, where they have your credit card? Other on-line shopping vendors? Or Credit card accounts? No Netflix? No Flickr? No Facebook? No saving your WiFi password? No 401k/IRA accounts? No mail accounts? Medical account via work? ISP password? Cellular Carrier Password? Cable TV (unless they are also your ISP)? Utilities (Gas/Electric/Water) accounts?

I don't see your point. I assume you mean that https connections require certificates. Firefox stores certificates itself. The webpages you refer to should work fine without keychain to remember my passwords.

Regarding your suggestions for web pages for financial and medical internet use. It should not be even legal to enable internet access to sensitive information.