Mobile/Projects/Password handling improvements

Tracking

• Meta bug for client-side work bug 1079403

Goals

Improve overall password UX and handling (may include Master Password) to go along with the form auto-fill improvements project. If users are going to store auto-fill data in their browsers, we want it to be significantly easier and more seamless, and we want to provide more high value features around password management.

This is not necessarily a full overhaul of the Fennec password system, just an initial "cupcake" level of improvement.

Use cases & user stories

• TBD

UX design

• UX exploration & investigation is needed.

Justification

Why are we doing this?

• User value - our current password handling is sub-par on mobile devices, and we need to do better. Having a truly effective and innovative way to make passwords suck less would be an incredibly attractive user benefit potentially leading to marketshare increases and pre-install deals.
• User protection - improving how we handle passwords will (ideally) make using properly-secure passwords less arduous for users, increasing their overall security and privacy. This will potentially lead to increased marketshare, visibility, and pre-install deals.
• Supports other features, such as improving our auto-fill capabilities and mobile shopping optimizations, possibly (eventually?) Firefox Account integration and support.

Research and references

• LastPass
  • Supports Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera [Supports Linux, Windows, Mac]
  • Uses a user-generated master password then auto-generates website passwords
  • Local encryption
  • Add-ons plug into the browser
• 1Password
  • Supports Mac, Windows, iOS, Android
• Mitro
  • Open source app/system
  • Add-ons to some browsers
  • Share passwords with other people
  • Manage logins, passwords, credit cards, etc
  • Import passwords from other docs

Quality criteria

• No user-perceptible performance degradation
• All user stories are met
• All goals are met