Encrypt Passwords and Private Keys1
WebSSH keeps your connections and keys in one database on the device. The Encrypt Secrets switch protects the sensitive part of it with your database password: a copy of the database file, whoever gets it, no longer gives away a password or a private key.
It is available on iPhone, iPad and Mac, in the FREE and PRO versions alike.
What is encrypted
With Encrypt Secrets on, these are encrypted inside the database of the device:
- the password of each connection,
- the port knocking sequence of each connection,
- each private key,
- the passphrase of a private key, when you asked WebSSH to remember it.
Names, hosts, users, ports, snippets and settings are not secrets and stay as they are, so searching and sorting keep working exactly as before.
Turn it on
- Open Settings ▸ Maintenance ▸ Local Database.
- If the Database Password row reads Generated by WebSSH, choose your own first: the button at the end of the row, then Set My Password…. WebSSH offers to encrypt the secrets right after.
- Switch Encrypt Secrets on and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
WebSSH takes a backup of the database, then encrypts the secrets of every connection and every key. It takes a few seconds; the progress is shown.
A line under the password of a connection and under the list of keys also leads to this screen, as long as the switch is off.
Why a password of your own is required
The key that encrypts the secrets never leaves the device. On another device it is your database password that gives access to them again, so it has to be a password you know: one that WebSSH generated and that you never saw would not help you there.
Day to day
Nothing changes. WebSSH does not ask for the password on the device where the switch was turned on: connections open as usual, and new or edited passwords and keys are encrypted as they are saved.
Changing the database password keeps everything readable. When the secrets are encrypted, WebSSH also takes a backup right after the change, so that your most recent backup always goes with your current password.
On another device, or after a restore
When the database arrives on a device that never had it (a backup restored on a new iPhone, a Mac that was erased), the secrets are locked:
- a red dot appears on the settings gear, on Maintenance and on Local Database,
- the Database Password section shows Unlock Secrets…,
- a connection that needs a private key says that the key is locked instead of connecting; a locked password is simply asked when you connect.
Tap Unlock Secrets… and type the database password. It is asked once on that device, and everything is readable again. When the device had no password of its own yet, the one you typed becomes its database password, backups included.
Nothing is lost while the secrets are locked: you can rename or edit a connection, its password is kept and comes back with the unlock.
A lost password cannot be recovered
WebSSH cannot recover or reset the database password, and neither can we. On a device where the secrets are locked, there is no other way in. Keep the password in a password manager, as you would for your backups.
A backup made before a password change
A backup holds the database as it was on that day. Restored on another device, an older backup asks for the password that was in use when it was made. The most recent backup always goes with your current password.
iCloud Sync
iCloud Sync is not affected by this switch: it works as before, and each device has its own Encrypt Secrets setting.
Turn it off
Switch Encrypt Secrets off and confirm. The secrets are stored as before the switch was turned on. This is only possible on a device where they are unlocked.
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Available since WebSSH 33.4 ↩