Windows equivalent of OS X Keychain?

dF_3002 0
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Is there an equivalent of the OS X Keychain, used to store user passwords, in Windows? I would use it to save the user's password for a web service that my (desktop) software uses.

From the answers to this related question (Protecting user passwords in desktop applications (Rev 2)) and the multitude of third party password storage tools available, I assume that such a thing doesn't exist-- Am I stuck with either asking for the password each time I access the web service, or just storing it obfuscated?

passwords security windows
9 Answers

It is year 2018, and Windows 10 has a "Credential Manager" that can be found in "Control Panel"

user_40494560

The "traditional" Windows equivalent would be the Protected Storage subsystem, used by IE (pre IE 7), Outlook Express, and a few other programs. I believe it's encrypted with your login password, which prevents some offline attacks, but once you're logged in, any program that wants to can read it. (See, for example, NirSoft's Protected Storage PassView.)

Windows also provides the CryptoAPI and Data Protection API that might help. Again, though, I don't think that Windows does anything to prevent processes running under the same account from seeing each other's passwords.

It looks like the book Mechanics of User Identification and Authentication provides more details on all of these.

Eclipse (via its Secure Storage feature) implements something like this, if you're interested in seeing how other software does it.

Josh_Kelley_255070
user_106079210

A free and open source password manager that keeps all of your passwords safe in one place is "KeePass" and alternative to Windows Credential Manager.

user_141295460

If you are on windows got to control pannel -> windows Credentials

user_135068120

Credential dumping on Windows, even with "Credential Manager" is still an issue, and I don't think there is any way to prevent it outside of special hardware. MacOS keychain doesn't have this problem and so I don't think there is an exact equivalent.

user_676590

Yes. The answer is Credential locker

There are specific UWP APIs for it, and I believe you can access the same APIs from WinUI 3

user_18781410
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