GNOME Keyring

GNOME Keyring is an open source project that provides users with a collection of command-line programs and libraries for capturing and storing passwords, certificates, encryption keys, and other secrets that can’t be viewed by others.

Designed for GNOME

It is distributed as part of the GNOME project, automatically configured and setup with every fresh installation of the controversial desktop environment. It runs in background (daemon) and designed to manage several keyrings simultaneously.

While the application integrates well with GNOME Display Manager (GDM), automatically unlocking user’s secrets when they log into the session, it also comes with a password store for GNOME applications, allowing them to access passwords and other sensitive data.

Based around the PKCS#11 specification

The project is based around the PKCS#11 (Public-Key Cryptography Standards) specification, which provides a way for applications to manage keys and certificates on a secure storage or on smart cards.

Among other features, we can mention that there’s also a session keyring that is automatically dumped when the GNOME session ends, support for storing certificates in specific categories (GNOME2 Key Storage, User Key Storage or System Trust), as well as to store Secure Shell (SSH) and PGP (GnuPG) keys.

In addition to the built-in integration with main GNOME components, the program can store authentication credentials from many third-party applications, including web browsers, instant messengers, or email clients.

While the project doesn’t provides users with a GUI front-end, novice GNOME users can interact with the application through dedicated graphical applications, such as the acclaimed Seahorse (also known as Passwords and Keys).

Bottom line

Summing up, GNOME Keyring is a very important component of the well known GNOME desktop environment. It is automatically enabled and configured to store all of your secrets, including website logins, app passwords, any even PGP and SSH keys or certificates. Without it, GNOME would be a very unsafe work environment.

What is new in this release:

• Fix glitches in ssh-agent [#795699]

What is new in version :

• Add support for ECDSA in ssh-agent [#641082]
• Wipe passwords stored by the PAM module [#781486]
• Fix shared key derivation between libsecret and gnome-keyring [#778357]
• Fix erroneous handling of partial writes in write_sync_close [#778269]
• Set CKF_LOGIN_REQUIRED flag in ssh-module
• Build and testing fixes [#774312, #781785]

What is new in version 3.20.1:

• Fix boolean logic error in ssh-agent
• Pass the correct argc to gkr_pam_client_run_operation [#766222]
• Look for both dlopen and dlsym when configuring [#766221]
• Fix .so link in gnome-keyring-3 man page [#767095]
• Die if the XDG session we were started under goes away [#768943]
• Shorten unlock keyring dialog title [#770170]
• Updated translations

What is new in version 3.16.0 / 3.18 Beta 2:

• More fixes for GDBus migration [#622905]
• Fix a memory leak [#752919]

What is new in version 3.14.0 / 3.16.0 RC:

• pam: Make sure to never block SIGCHLD [#745673]
• Revert "ssh-agent: Fix leak in seach_keys_like_attributes()"
• Updated translations

What is new in version 3.14.0:

• Remove residual GTK+ usage
• Updated translations
• Build fixes

What is new in version 3.14 Beta 2:

• Initialize correctly with empty passwords during login [#736085]
• Don't use geteuid() to get UID for user in PAM module [#733418]
• Fix for libgcrypt 1.6+
• Build fixes

What is new in version 3.12.2:

• Build fixes

What is new in version 3.12.0:

• Fix regression sorting recent files
• New and updated translations

What is new in version 3.10.1:

• Build fix on OpenBSD [#706405]
• Add manual page
• Minor error message fixes
• Updated translations

What is new in version 3.10.0:

• Minor logic fix [#708483]

What is new in version 3.10 Beta 1:

• Fix running gnome-keyring-daemon under test harness
• Test fixes [#702367]

What is new in version 3.8.2:

• Build certificate chains when intermediates are wrong order [#699026]
• Don't try to import certificates to gnome-keyring xdg module
• Add appropriate icon for p11-kit trust module
• Make gcr build on both pre GTK+ 3.8 and later versions
• Update for recent changes in libtasn1
• Handle cases where no certificate data is available
• Fix for GTK+ 3.8 deprecations
• Build fixes

What is new in version 3.9.1:

• Fix implementation of LockService dbus method [#690466]
• Updated translations [nl]
• Build fixes

Requirements:

• libgnome-keyring
• GTK+