Keychain Access and Certificates?

I was looking for information on a password manager and remembered that Apple has Keychain Access as part of the OS.
I am trying to understand how it works and only find the Help files available for reading. I am missing a somewhat deeper overview and understanding, not just a list of 'how to ...' instructions.
Can anyone point me to articles or documentartion to help understand this application?
While poking around in Keychain Access, I noticed 175 unique certificates on my Mac under the Keychain called 'System Roots'. I looked at the information on several and am unable to interpret the information, nor the Trust settings available. Also, the Certificate Assistant options available for Viewing and Evaluating Certificates.
My biggest concern is that I do not recognize most of these certificates, and do not understand how they got on my computer, and what happens if I remove them?

Thanks - I looked at several of the links, but I'm not a software engineer.
I'm looking for documents that are geared to a user of the product (OSX), to help me understand all the things I see when opening up Keychain Access, and understand what they do, and a layman's description of the certificates and what happens if I delete them.
Also, a brief overview of the keychain and how it is used, how it is useful, etc.
Just can't seem to find the user oriented documentation...

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Keychain Access and password problems

Simply stated, I can't save my mail passworld to the Keychain - tried clicking the "Save to Keychain" box (so Mail/Entourage asks me for my mail password every time) -
Thrashed around in Keychain Access and tried First Aid - Verify and got:
Verification started
Checking keychain configuration for Perry & Jodi Collier (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/pezjode
Error: unable to communicate with the “securityd” process. Please restart your machine and try again. If this does not correct the error, you may need to reinstall the system software.
Verification failed
What is the "securityd" process? Any help on any of the above would be much appreciated!
I seem to have had a lot of trouble with my system post 10.4.9 upgrade - very annoying.
Cheers
PowerBook G4 17 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Thanks for that, I deleted all references to keychains in /Library and logged back in, added a keychain for my username and all is now well.
However, I've just started using MS Entourage (as the Mail program was also freaking out like Safari) and it seems that when I tell this application to save my mail password to the Keychain, it throws a spanner in the works...
Might start a new thread on this one...
cheers

Please Help With Keychain Access and Safari Passwords!

Hello,
I would like to take advantage of the capabilities that Keychain Access has to offer... I like how it can store passwords from websites. I have stored several website passwords in Keychain Access and currently have it set to where it asks for my keychain password when first opening Safari, and then it automatically fills in my passwords that are stored in Keychain Access in the corresponding websites. However, when I close Safari completely, the next time I open Safari it already has my passwords filled in, without asking for my keychain password. The only way I have found to make Safari ask for my keychain password every time it is opened is to select "lock all keychains" in Keychain Access. It is a pain to have to open Keychain Access every time I close Safari in order for Safari to ask for my keychain password again. Is there a more simple way to make Safari ask for my keychain password everytime I open Safari?

Hi, okwildthing. Welcome to the forums!
Try this:
Open Keychain Access and find "Safari Forms AutoFill" in the list. Double-click it and go to the "Access Control" tab. (You may need to enter your keychain password at this point.) Remove Safari from the "Always allow access by these applications" list. Press "Save Changes."
Does this get Safari to do what you want it to do?

MB Air won't let me sign in to iCloud from System Preferences. I reset Keychain Access and deleted Accounts plist. No problem signing in via web and on other Mac.

Hi all.
I've just been given an Air. I used Migration Assistant to transfer everything (which didn't work very well: no Contacts transferred and the Air Contacts application can't even open manually transferred Contacts Archive .vcf).
Trying to transfer contacts led me to iCloud - I thought I could copy them from there. Then I discovered that I can't sign in to iCloud via System Preferences. I get two error messages. The most common one is 'you cannot sign in at this time'. I've tried every solution on the web: I reinstalled Yosemite. I reset Keychain Access. I deleted Accounts plist.
The other message I occasionally get is 'This is a valid Apple ID but not an iCloud account'. It is: I'm logged on fine on my MBP, iPhone and iPad.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance,
Aida

So - I have been having this same issue, and while it's not totally resolved for me, I have figured out what's causing it. I am running a machine with two hard drives and to keep my documents on a separate drive from the OS/Applications, I used the Advanced Option to specify the location of my home drive for my user account under "Users & Groups". I've found that if I reset this to the default path of /Macintosh HD/Users/{username}, that it works fine. However Apple has a bug in that this functionality breaks when you specify your own home directory. Hopefully, this will be addressed in an update.

Keychain Access Expired Certificates

I am doing some house cleaning and found several keychains that needed removing. While doing this I found that there are several Anchors and Certificates that are expired. How do these get updated? How do I find out if they are needed? Are these updated with security releases by Apple?

See http://search.info.apple.com/?q=%22certificate%22&search=Go&lr=lang_en&search=Go and the various links for starters.

Trying to view WIFI password in Keychain Access and asking for administrator' name and password?

This is the first time this happen and I had never have this problem before when using Keychain Access.
I try using my current password but it doesn't accept.
I try using the Keychain First Aid and it didn't work either.
Note: I had change my login password a 2 weeks ago, but I try using the old password to and and didn't help either.
My OS 10.9 Maverick.
Any ideas what's happening here and how to fix this problem?

It's normal.

Keychain Access and dial-up Internet connection problem

For the past two days I was unable to connect to my dial-up Internet on my Sawtooth. It's got 10.4.11. The Internet phone connections checked out fine. I even tried my old Dell and it got on the Internet ok.
I checked the Internet settings and thought they were ok. My Internet provider's website help section on set-up is worthless for Mac OS X. They only show instructions for OS 8 & 9!! Found some other dial up providers set-ups and went by them.
After trying to get the settings correct, right before I tried to connect to the 'net, a dialog box called "Confirm Access to Keychain" always came up. The box said: "pppd wants permission to use the "PPP Password" item from your keychain. Do you want to allow this? Deny, Allow Once, or Always Allow?" I had read on the Mac OS X help that allowing the keychain always permission to access to use passwords when going online isn't a good idea... I always kept clicking "Deny" and I couldn't connect. Just got brave a bit ago, and clicked on "Allow Once" and here I am on the Internet!!! This keychain business was the problem the whole time!
My question is how in the world did the Keychain get involved, as I didn't even ask it to save the Internet password etc. The Keychain shows PPP password listed three times and I believe a Dashboard certificate. Would it be ok to delete the three PPP password listed? Was going to, but was afraid I'd really mess up Tiger... I don't want to mess with Keychain at all, since I've read in the past that it can really cause headaches if not used correctly.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
silverado93

Yes, you can delete those PPP entries if you don't mind entering the Password each time you connect, though I'm on dial-up & have Always Allow checked without problems or a decade or so.

I reset keychain access and my items disappeared?

I reset my Keychain because it kept denying access to my items and upon restart ( as per instructions from Apple) none of my passwords and secure notes were there. Any thoughts?

Thats exactly what resetting your keychain is supposed to do. It restores it to as it was on day 1, now you need to re-enter all your passwords.

Master Password appears to have messed up Safari and Keychain Access

Hi!
I searched on my issue at length and perhaps I'm just ignorant, but I could not see an answer. So here goes...
My department has an internet site that requires a Certificate on Windows machines on the network, however you can also authenticate by entering your user name and password. I had entered my information, and saved the information in my Keychain.
Yesterday, I set the Master Password in System Prefs, however I did NOT turn FileVault on.
Today, I came to work and am on my work's network, just like normal. I went to a bookmark that is on the password protected site and I got a Keychain window asking for my FileVaultMaster password (or something like that). It was not looking for my login password for the Mac, rather the Master Password I set yesterday.
I entered the correct password, then I get the nasty page saying that the Page Requires and SSL Certificate.
So, I went to the Keychain Access and repair, but nothing needed repair. Emptied cache, same problem. I deleted the item in the Keychain, same problem. Deleted all saved passwords in Safari, same problem. Deleted all cookies, same problem.
So, I opened Firefox and I'm able to get in, but I can't in Safari.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do?
Thanks!

dr_elbow wrote:
The software it installed asked for my system password and has taken upon itself to delete my airport and probably all the settings that went with it!
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
This may not help, but I'd use the Network panel of System Preferences to create a new "Location" and add an AirPort connection item to that. (To create a new location, pull down the "Location" list and select "Edit Locations".) In the new location add an AirPort connection item and nothing else.) If that works, you would use location switching to alternate between mobile broadband an Wi-Fi connections. The easiest way to do that would be to use the "Location" item under the Apple menu.
For future reference, this discussion group section is intended for discussions of Apple's AirPort Extreme 802.11n base station. A better place for your post would probably have been in the "Getting Online and Networking" section of the "Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard" area.

Mail automatically adds certificates to Keychain Access. How to disable?

Is there a way to tell Mail not to automatically store certificates from digitally signed emails (in this case, using Verisign) in Keychain Access?
The problem is this:
When the old certificate expires from someone else, I create a new one, and have them send a signed email to my address. Mail then automatically adds the new certificate to my Keychain Access. I then go into Keychain Access and delete the old certificate, so that I can send secure and encrypted messages to them. However, if I go back to one of their saved OLD emails, it automatically adds the old certificate back to my Keychain Access. And when I go to create a new email to them, it often will use that old certificate, which no longer works for them.
I am looking for a way to better manage this or find out what others are doing out there with the same problem.
Keychain should have an "archive" section to put old certificates into. These then can be referenced to open old secure and encrypted messages, but not allowed to be used for sending new email.

Additionally, lets say something happens to your certificate and you need to download it again. In this case, from Verisign. A problem I have run into is when I go to Verisign, I am presented with the option of re-downloading my certificate. If I do this, there is no way on the Mac system that you specify this re-downloaded is your certificate. So I have to download a new certificate and then re-add my certificate to the rest of the employees and get theirs.
There needs to be an option to select "This is my certificate". Very much like in AddressBook, how you can specify different VCards as your own.

Screen went black, restarted to 0:01 on 01/01/01 and keychain access lost

I just had my screen go black and the computer shut down completely. Upon restart after pressing the power button, it powered to 0:01 on 01/01/01 and lost keychain access (WiFi). I restarted it a second time about 5 minutes later and these were restored. However, this is the second time this has happened in less than two days. The first time was at 2am and the screen went black and I had to boot it back up with the power button after determining that it wasn't asleep (which it would have no reason to be, I had just gone to brush my teeth).
I've noticed that both times it happened was while it was plugged in and I moved with it. I am extremely careful with my Mac (it cost an arm and leg and I've been very happy with it until now), and I handle it gently so it cannot be due to me setting it down hard. Also, it doesn't recognize the power adapter after the restarts. It's been about 20 minutes now and it still doesn't show that it is being charged nor is the adapter lit.
The first time, the keychain access and date came to within about 15-20 minutes after the initial restart. This second time, I just restarted the computer again and all was well.
I'm really concerned as I've only had it for four months (purchased brand new). While this is a much better crash to length-of-ownership ratio than I had with my PC's, I was thrilled that my MBP had been flawless thus far.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The other forum topics I found with this same issue all reported having to seek warranty work. I have no idea how I could be without it right now and I'm leaving for holiday in a week where I'll need it for studying and writing my dissertation.
Thank you in advance!!

Your AppleCare coverage is international, I'm not sure who told you it would't be covered however I'm pretty sure they were flat wrong. Call AppleCare and if you are questioned about where you bought the machine ask to speak to a supervisor, explain your situation, have all your receipts and documentation ready and you should be able to get help. At a minimum if the machine is less than a year old you have a warranty and should take it to your local Apple Store.
As far as update ONLY install updates that specifically designed for your machine.

Keychain Access

Hi, i would like to know abit about Keychain Access, under certificates "com.apple.systemdefault" and "com.apple.kerberos.kdc" have 'This root certificate is not trusted' under them both, "Dashboard Advisory" has 'This certificate was signed by an unknown authority' under it, is that something to worry about?
Also i cant unlock 'Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates', 'ATPR', 'PrivateEncryptedDatak', '052B00379E6ADE7AF005E8D5059Ck.dat' with my password, why is this?
Lastly do i need worry that 'com.apple.systendefault' and 'com.apple.kerberos.kdc' are under 'public key' in kind?
Im slowly learning about my mac, i dont like when i cant get into things on my own computer! Anyone got any info?
Cheers, Sam

The Keychain Access application is only available for Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, and through the iCloud.
(119867)

How do I overcome Keychain access "Access to this item is restricted". I need to view a password stored in Keychain

I am the adminstrator and only user of this MacBook. I need to see an internet password which is not stored on my browser or email client. When I go into Keychain Access and check the Show Password box it asks for Keychain password - that is no problem. Enter password, hit OK, then the message comes up Access to this item is restricted. I have gone into File - Get Info and made it read and write to Administrsators, System, Wheel and myself but it still says Restricted. Any ideas anyone PLEASE!!

I posted the same question elsewhere, but after poking around I discovered the following, which might be helpful.
Open Keychain Access, which is in your Applications/Utilities folder. There should be two sections on the left sidebar, Keychains and Category. When I opened it, only the Category section showed, but I eventually found an arrow which expanded the Keychains section.
Choose Login in the Keychains section, and "Passwords" in the Category section. Use the search field to find the program you need the password for, and double-click on it. A window with that program's label will open. Under the Attributes tab, click on the little Show Password checkbox. You'll be asked for your admin password. Once you've entered it, the password will appear in the Show Password field.
As an aside, I thought this is what I was doing all along, so here's another thing I did before it started working: I found Keychain First Aid and ran both the Verify and Repair options. Both of these reported no problems, but it might have done something to encourage things to work right.*
*As you can tell, I anthropomorphize my electronic devices. It's the only way to cope with the way they misbehave.

"Show password" in Keychain Access not working

When I launch Keychain Access and tick the "Show password:" checkbox for a given Keychain item I get prompted to enter my password. After doing so the password field remains blank.
Anyone else run into this problem? Know a workaround?

I'm getting something like this but when I click "Show Password" I get a mumbojumbo of letters and symbols at least 120 characters and clearly not my passworld. Is this something with Maverick, because I've been having a lot of problems.

Two System keychains in Keychain Access

Hi there
When I go into Keychain Access I see two 'system' keychains listed. I believe they are multiple references to the same keychain. Is this something I should worry about and might it affect system performance?
Many thanks
Paul Blake
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

it's still just one system keychain. you just opened it twice. this is quite harmless. if it really bothers you quit keychain access and delete the file /users/username/library/preferences/com.apple.security.plist. then start keychain access and there will be just one system keychain there.

Keychain Access and Certificates?

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