When a Leak Isn’t a Leak

Over the weekend Dale Myers wrote a blog post that examined our .agilekeychain format. The post featured a good discussion and analysis of our older data format, but it raised some questions among 1Password users and the wider technology community.

Dale states that he plans to continue using 1Password and has no concerns over the safety of his passwords themselves, but his main concern was how the AgileKeychain handles item URLs. While we widely documented this design decision and shared it publicly, Dale was surprised to find out that we didn’t encrypt URLs within the keychain. We want to reassure users that rely on AgileKeychain that their password data is safe and secure, and take the time to walk through our data formats to explain the issue completely.

AgileKeychain & OPVault Data Formats

Back in 2008, we introduced the AgileKeychain as a way to help our users better synchronize data across platforms and devices. At this time, 1Password had significantly less processing power to draw from for tasks like decryption, and doing something as simple as a login search would cause massive performance issues and battery drain for our users. Given the constraints that we faced at the time, we decided not to encrypt item URLs and Titles (which resembled the same sorts of information that could be found in browser bookmarks).

In December 2012, we introduced a new format that encrypted much more of the metadata. OPVault, our newer and stronger data format, provided authenticated encryption as well as many other improvements for 1Password users.

This format worked well in situations where we didn’t need to worry about backwards compatibility, including iCloud and local storage on iOS and Mac. For Windows, Android, and Dropbox syncing, however, we needed to decide if we should migrate to the new format or provide compatibility with older versions of 1Password.

We decided to take a conservative approach and not automatically migrate everyone over to OPVault because many users depend upon older versions of 1Password and they wouldn’t be able to log into their accounts. We knew we could trust the security of the AgileKeychain to protect confidential user data so we didn’t want to rush into something that would disrupt people’s workflows.

Switching to OPVault

Despite the security of AgileKeychain remaining intact, Dale reminded us that its time to move on. The OPVault format is really great in so many ways and we should start sharing it with as many users as possible.

We’ve already started making changes to use OPVault as the default format. In fact, the latest beta of 1Password for Windows does this already. Similar changes are coming to Mac and iOS soon, and we’re planning on using the new format in Android in the future. Once all of these things are complete, we will add an automatic migration for all 1Password users. For users who would like to switch to OPVault sooner than this, here’s how you can get started immediately:

• If you use 1Password for Mac, our knowledgebase will help you.
• If you use 1Password for Windows, we’ve posted instructions in our discussion forums.
• If you use only 1Password for iOS, sync with iCloud.
• If you use 1Password for Android, use Wi-Fi sync.

To avoid losing access to your data, be sure to back up your 1Password data beforehand, and only follow these instructions if you are NOT using any legacy versions of 1Password. If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to migrate but aren’t sure if your version of 1Password is affected, our knowledgebase, forums and support team are here to help.