Security word verification

Question

No words show in the space when asked to verify. Help.

Answer 1

That's something I've not encountered before.
I'm not really a Mac specialist, but I'll give it a try until someone familiar with this answers it. (It really doesn't like you, does it.)
1. Click the little blue apple on the desktop top bar and a window will drop down. Click 'System Preferences'. Click 'Security'. Are any of the little boxes checked? Uncheck them.
2. When you set your browser's 'home page', did you set it to one that requires a password? You can try diagnosing the problem, and learn something of how your Mac works.
3. If your home page requires a password, open KeyChain, as below, and be sure your 'Access Control' has 'Confirm before allowing access' checked, and 'Always' is the answer in the Pop-up window. Otherwise, (by default) that website's password is never made available.
4. Try creating a new, non-administrator's account, take the default settings, and see whether it happens.
Password Philosophy
Your Mac is designed so you need remember only your login password (and you can bypass even that). Any tine a sneaky person a a cafe might cause some mischief, the Mac asks for a password. When you're about to modify you Mac in a way that will affect all accounts, it will ask you to confirm your Administrator's password (your login password on an administrator's account: the first account created is always an administrator's). When you request access to another computer, by logging into a network or a website, that computer will ask for a consistent password. Here, I like to choose random ones, if Keychain will memorize it. Very low security websites may permit cookies to memorize your password; while not as secure, I do this. Very high security websites, such as my bank, don't permit passwords to be memorized by my Mac. That's how it's supposed to work. You have 'harden' this security with the Security selections above.
Firefox Passwords
Safari and Firefox are not security risks. I create a Visitor's account, and let anyone use them. You can see what passwords Firefox has memorized by clicking Preferences > Security. Be sure 'Use a Master Password' is not clicked. Click 'Saved Passwords' to see whether you have any.
Safari Passwords
The safer passwords are in KeyChain, in your 'Utility' directory (or 'Applications, I can never remember'). Open it. Click 'Passwords'. If I click the top bar of 'Kind', to sort that column, I see only four 'application passwords'. None is Safari or Firefox. Do you?
Keychain I can use as follows. I thumb down the list of Web form passwords until I reach 'login.afterdawn.com'. After it is my login name. If I click it, a little window will pop-up. It tells me the exact http address of the website, my account name there (again), and permits comments about this website.
These are your password's 'attributes'. Because I, too, use two browsers (for security reasons), I might like to access this website from both. So, I click 'access control'. Only 'Confirm before allowing access' is checked. In principal, I can control my password's use in many ways; but I never learned how. When I ask to view my password, I enter my login password and click 'Once', so it will ask for it next time.
I could never understand the help menu here, so others must help you with variations on these standard settings.
Best of luck!