How to reset the Master Password in Firefox

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 3, 2007
Updated • Feb 4, 2015
Firefox
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5

While the Master Password in Firefox is a useful security addition it can soon become a burden if you lost the password that you entered there.

There is no option to open a file in your profile folder to look it up as it is not available anywhere in unencrypted form.While there are brute force applications out there, they too are limited and often useless depending on the strength of the selected password. It would take years or even longer than that if you have selected a master password with 20 or more characters that use letters, numbers and special characters.If you have forgotten your master password it is fair to assume that you won't be able to access the password storage in Firefox anymore.While I still recommend to create a backup of Firefox that you can restore at a later point in time should you remember the password then, the only course of action is to reset the master password.firefox master password The unfortunate side effect of this is that you will lose access to all passwords stored by Firefox as they are removed with it.

Resetting the Master Password in Firefox:

Open Firefox and paste the following line into the address bar:

chrome://pippki/content/resetpassword.xul

A text will appear stating that if you reset your master password all login details including usernames, passwords and websites will be lost. If you click on Reset the master password, it is reset which means that you can enter a new one. Cancel is an option here that you can use if you want to stop the process.

Brute Force the Master Password in Firefox:

You can use a software called FireMaster to try and use the Brute Force method to regain your Master Password.

    Firemaster generates passwords using various methods.It then generates hashes of the passwords using the same algorithm that Firefox uses.

  • It then attempts to decrypt the password databases using those hashes.
  • This continues until the correct master password has been found or the process is stopped by the user.

I would only use the brute force method if you are nearly certain that you used a word or word combination. A password like 'X23n52fF:tht0_ete%v5' would take ages to reveal.

Summary
How to reset the Master Password in Firefox
Article Name
How to reset the Master Password in Firefox
Description
Find out how to reset the Firefox Master Password so that you can assign a new password in the browser.
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Comments

  1. guy said on January 8, 2013 at 3:40 pm
    Reply

    it would be awesome if that master reset page was working.
    their are no buttons to “reset” or “cancel”… it does nothing

  2. Pierre said on November 13, 2009 at 2:53 pm
    Reply

    Thank goodness, thanks for this.
    I thought I had to re-install firefox.

    cheers

  3. Relequest said on October 4, 2007 at 11:25 am
    Reply

    I lost my master password once, luckily i could remember part of it and some variables.
    I downloaded a very versatile brute forcer. 20 characters would have taken 170 years or so. when i narrowed it down to my parameters, it took less than half an hour

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