How is a password field recognised? (Firefox 2)

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It’s probably a very naive question, but if you ask Firefox to remember a password, how does it know into which field to insert it in a different webpage from the one in which it was created?

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Whew, I’m probably the least qualified, programming knowledge-wise John, but based on what I see in the Fx Options passwords window, it remembers a three-fold entity – URL, username and password. I’m judging that from the fact that my son and I both use this computer for some common purposes such as ISP’s webmail, sports game logons, etc. and the password window shows the URLs, username (his or mine) and the password (if you ask it to show same). That’s all I can “guesstimate.”

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I think part of the information is in the “Cookie”.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Perhaps I had better explain further:

On a particular webpage I sign on with a username and a password.
On a completely different webpage called Preferences, I have the option to change the password, plus quite a lot of other things, and I find that the password field on this page has been filled in (presumably) and now appears as asterisks. There are several other fields, as well as New Password and Confirm New Password.

I don’t follow how the password field in the preferences web page gets filled in (I have Autofill set to Off in the Google Tolbar, by the way, but I have Remember Passwords ticked in Firefox -> Tools -> Options -> Security tab). In other words, how does Firefox know that the password typed into one field on one page should be filled in in a specific field on the other page?

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I don’t use this feature but I turned it on and saved a login to see what I could see.

My guess is that the field names are the same. In other words, on both pages I would expect to see the same values here:

Username:
Password:

In looking at signons2.txt in my profile, I can’t tell whether Firefox is storing the field names, but unless it is, I can’t think of any other way to even reasonably securely manage the information.

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In the Logon page I find in the source:

            
              Password:

              
            

and in the Preferences page:

                    
                    1. Enter Your Current Password:
                    
                  
                  

                    
                  

So certainly it is using the same name in both web pages, which is presumably being saved by Firefox from the Logon page and plugged into the current password field on the Preferences page…

Thanks!

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