# The &kwallet; Handbook

&George.Staikos; &George.Staikos.mail;
&Lauri.Watts; &Lauri.Watts.mail;
George
Staikos

    staikos@kde.org

Developer
&FDLNotice;
2004-02-02
1.0

The wallet subsytem provides a convenient and secure way to manage all your passwords.

KDE
Kwallet
passwords
forms

## Introduction

Computer users have a very large amount of data to manage, some of which is sensitive. In particular, you will typically have many passwords to manage. Remembering them is difficult, writing them down on paper or in a text file is insecure, and using tools such at PGP is tedious and inconvenient.

&kwallet; saves this sensitive data for you in a strongly encrypted file, accessible by all applications, and protected with a master password.

For most secure operation, you should use one wallet for local passwords, and another for network passwords and form data. You can configure this behavior in the &kwallet; &kcontrolcenter; module, however the default setting is to store everything in one wallet.

## &kwalletmanager;

&kwalletmanager; serves two functions. Firstly it allows you to see if any wallets are open, which wallets those are, and which applications are using each wallet. You can disconnect an application's access to a wallet from within the &kwalletmanager;.

You may also manage the wallets installed on the system, creating and deleting wallets and manipulating their contents.

When a wallet is opened, the &kwalletmanager; application is launched. A system tray icon indicates that a wallet is open. When all wallets are closed, the icon will reflect this by showing a closed wallet.

Click on the wallet icon to display a window showing all available wallets as icons which reflect their current status, either open or closed.

### The &kwalletmanager; Context Menu

Right clicking on a wallet offers the following functions:

New Wallet

  Create a new wallet. A dialog will open requesting a name for the new wallet.

&Enter; Open...

  Open the wallet. The contents of the wallet will display in a new window.

Change Password

  Change the master password for the wallet.

Disconnect

  Disconnect an application from the wallet. Currently connected applications will appear in a submenu.

Close

  Force the wallet closed.

Delete

  Delete the wallet

### The Wallet Window

Clicking on a wallet in the &kwalletmanager; window will open a new window displaying that wallet's contents.

The window contains four panes:

- A summary of the contents of the current folder

- The folders contained in the wallet

- The entries in the currently selected folder

- The contents of the selected folder entry

Folders may be added or deleted, and selecting a folder will update the folder entry list and the summary display. Selecting a folder entry will update the entry contents pane, and allow you to edit that entry.

Entries may also be created or deleted via the context menu for the folder contents.

All folders and entries may be dragged and dropped into other wallets or folders respectively. This allows a user to easily package up a new wallet for transfer to another environment. For instance, a new wallet could be created and copied onto a removable flash memory device. Important passwords could be transferred there, so you have them available in other locations.

## Configuring &kwallet;

### Wallet Preferences

&kwallet; contains a small configuration panel with several options that allow you to tune &kwallet; to your individual preferences. The default settings for &kwallet; are sufficient for most users.

Check the box to enable or disable the &kde; wallet subsystem entirely. If this box is unchecked, then &kwallet; is entirely disabled and none of the other options here have any effect, nor will &kwallet; record any information, or offer to fill in forms for you.

#### Close Wallet

Close when unused for:

Close when screen saver starts

Close when last application stops using it

#### Automatic Wallet Selection

Select wallet to use as default:

Different wallet for local passwords:

#### Wallet Manager

Show manager in system tray

Hide System tray icon when last wallet closes

Finally, there is a button labelled Launch Wallet Manager, which does precisely that.

### Access Control

There is only one option on this page:

Prompt when an application accesses an open wallet

Next there is a tree style view of the access controls for your wallets.

&LMB; click on the + symbol beside a wallet name to expand the tree. You will see the name of each application that has asked for access to the wallet, and the policy you set for it. You cannot edit policies here, or add them, but it is possible to delete an entry by &RMB; clicking on it and choosing Delete From the context menu that appears, or by simply selecting it and pressing the Delete key.

## Advanced Features

Wallets can be dragged from the &kwalletmanager; window. This allows you to drag the wallet to a file browser window, where you can choose to copy, move, or link the wallet, as desired.

You might use this to save a wallet to portable media, such as a USB keychain, so that you can take your passwords with you to work or on a vacation, and still have easy access to important sites.

Future versions will have built-in functions for easy export or copying of data to portable devices.

## Credits and Licenses

&kwallet; © 2003 &George.Staikos;

Documentation © &Lauri.Watts; and &George.Staikos;

&underFDL; &underGPL;

&documentation.index;