[CentOS] Frefox update from firefox-60.2.0-1.el7.centos.x86_64 to 60.2.1-1.el7.centos.x86_64 lost master password

[Rob Kampen]

On 13/10/18 02:24, Phelps, Matthew wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 5:34 AM Rob Kampen<rkampen at kampensonline.com>  wrote:
>
>> Hi list,
>>
>> Did an update to firefox last night and rebooted over night.
>>
>> Today I find firefox started without asking for master password - funny
>> me thinks.
>>
>> Try to log in to a web service I use and find that my password does not
>> appear.
>>
>> Check preferences and find that no master password is set and the
>> password list / table is empty.
>>
>> As I do not trust my passwords to the cloud I do not save these to my
>> firefox profile ..... so back to manual entry for all my sites.... wow
>> going to be a slow month as I reset scores of passwords.
>>
>> Any one else have this problem and any clues as to what causes this? I
>> am concerned if this should happen again, as I have saved passwords for
>> many scores of web services.
>>
>> TIA
>> Rob
>>
> We've run into this.
>
> Is it fixed in the latest firefox, 60.2.2-1?
>
> If not, it is not clear to me how to use the
>
> export NSS_DEFAULT_DB_TYPE="sql"
  put this in .bash_profile and reboot - then check from a shell that 
export shows the declaration.
I think this locks firefox into the old key3.db mode of operation.
I didn't have an old file to restore, thus lost all my logins and also 
my noscript history - what a huge PITA!

Have just done the yum update for the latest firefox and now I see a 
key4.db. Needed to start the new firefox and exit before it showed.
HOWEVER when I logged out and back in without the export command it all 
went pear shaped again.
So reinstated the export NSS.... again, now I needed to reestablish the 
master password file, it seems to make a new key3.db file and doesn't 
touch the key4.db file that was originally created after the firefox 
update. BUT THEN when I exit a second time it deletes the key3.db and 
I'm back to ZERO.

This is so stuffed up!

Seems every second time I exit Firefox it kills the key3.db and all my 
stuff is gone.

Some seriously brain dead designers in the firefox / mozilla stable at 
this time.
Seems that one cannot afford to exit firefox and keep the master 
password file/database.
After so many years of using it, I cannot live without a reliable 
password and master password database - firefox clearly doesn't have 
this capability any longer.

Moving to try Vivaldi

> method mentioned. Do we restore the old key3.db file, have the user set
> that variable, then start the new firefox? With that create a key4.db file
> and use it from then on?
>
>