GNOME Keyring is a software application designed to store security credentials such as

usernames A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username include login name, screenname (or screen name), account ...

, passwords, and

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

, together with a small amount of relevant

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

. The sensitive data is encrypted and stored in a keyring

file File or filing may refer to: Mechanical tools and processes * File (tool), a tool used to ''remove'' fine amounts of material from a workpiece **Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing ** Nail file, a tool used to gent ...

in the user's

home directory A home directory is a file system directory on a multi-user operating system containing files for a given user of the system. The specifics of the home directory (such as its name and location) are defined by the operating system involved; for ...

. The default keyring uses the login password for encryption, so users don't need to remember another password. As of 2009, GNOME Keyring was part of the desktop environment in the operating system

OpenSolaris OpenSolaris () is a discontinued open-source computer operating system based on Solaris and created by Sun Microsystems. It was also, perhaps confusingly, the name of a project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around th ...

. GNOME Keyring is implemented as a daemon and uses the

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

name ''gnome-keyring-daemon''. Applications can store and request passwords by using the ''libsecret''

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

which replaces the deprecated ''libgnome-keyring'' library. GNOME Keyring is part of the

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

desktop. As of 2006, it integrated with NetworkManager to store WEP passwords. GNOME Web and the email client Geary uses GNOME Keyring to store passwords. In 2009, a statistical study of software packages in the

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide. Red Hat has become ass ...

Linux distribution found that packages depending upon GNOME Keyring (and therefore integrated somewhat with the GNOME desktop environment) were less likely to be associated with software vulnerabilities than those with a dependency upon ''kdelibs'' (and therefore integrated somewhat with the KDE desktop environment). On systems where GNOME Keyring is present, software written in Vala can use it to store and retrieve passwords. The GNOME Keyring Manager (gnome-keyring-manager) was the first user interface for the GNOME Keyring. As of GNOME 2.22, it is deprecated and replaced entirely with

Seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...

References

External links

GNOME Keyring Wikipage
on wiki.gnome.org
GNOME Keyring git
on git.gnome.org
gnome-keyring Security Philosophy
{{GNOME-stub Free password managers Free software programmed in C GNOME

See also

References

External links