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I've recently moved from Firefox to Opera (for performance issues).

I used to protect my passwords in Firefox with a Master Password. But Opera, so it appears, lacks such feature.

I use Debian 9.7 and Windows 10 and intend to use Opera in both. And I am not worried about someone accessing my machine running and unlocked. It would be more a case of the laptop getting astray, but disconnected.

If someone accessed my computer using a live-CD, would he be able to access passwords saved by Opera? Is Opera safe regarding saved passwords?

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  • Not exactly an answer, but: On Windows 10, you may be able to use BitLocker or something like VeraCrypt (to encrypt the whole disk) or Encrypted File System (to encrypt just the files that Opera uses to store sensitive data); in either case it will become effectively impossible for an attacker to steal your data without at least one of your Windows password or your disk password (if you use disk encryption with a password). Disk encryption is also possible on Linux.
    – CBHacking
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 23:33
  • @CBHacking: yes, I use dm-crypt LUKS in Linux, but just for files, not the whole system. But that wouldn't be a problem if the browser encrypts the passwords.
    – Jason T.
    Commented Feb 12, 2019 at 23:39
  • Chrome on linux uses the system's secret service, such as gnome keyring or kde's equivalent. The keyring generally defaults to being encrypted with your login password and automatically unlocking on login. Since Opera is now based on Chrome, I would expect it to do the same, though I haven't checked. I've heard there's some similar feature for windows, but I don't use it so I've never looked into it.
    – AndrolGenhald
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 1:01

1 Answer 1

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By default, your passwords are encrypted using your Opera credentials. Only encrypted password information is stored on Opera’s server and delivered to your devices. Opera uses your account credentials to decrypt passwords when you sign into your account on your other devices. When Opera receives and decrypts synced passwords, they are stored in your computer’s Keychain.

Official Source

Locally, Opera can save encrypted passwords using your OS login data and therefore they can not be read in a different device or by a different user, so no, live-CD will not access them, unless a password recovery is performed vs. the account using them.

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  • The Opera credentials are used only if you sync your accounts. Otherwise, your passwords won't even be stored on a server.
    – Quora Feans
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 13:13
  • Yes, that's how it works.
    – Overmind
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 13:20
  • I mean the OP won't have Opera credentials to encrypt their passwords with, if he's just working locally. This does not dismiss, obviously, the keychain bit though.
    – Quora Feans
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 13:23
  • I have exemplified the local-only option.
    – Overmind
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 13:30
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    More specifically: Opera passwords are in .config/opera/Login Data In the file there's a list of web-sites and usernames, but no passwords in plain text (so no need to panic).
    – Quora Feans
    Commented Feb 13, 2019 at 13:34

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