Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

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CHAPTER 8 LEOPARD SECURITY
• The key in the keychain is valid and unexpired. While this usually isn’t a big problem for
passwords, security certificates and encryption keys, which are also stored in the keychain,
will often expire.
The keychain data itself is stored in a file in your ~/Library/Keychains folder. All sensitive
data is well encrypted within the file. Should you ever need to view your keychain (or other keychains
you have access to), Leopard includes the Keychain Access utility (in the /Applications/
Utilities folder). The Keychain Access utility (Figure 8-1) provides a way for you to view, edit,
and configure individual entries stored in your keychain.
Figure 8-1. The Keychain Access utility provides a way to view and alter your keychain items.
The Keychain Access utility provides a column on the left where you can select the keychain
you’d like to view (any available keychains will be listed there; your default keychain is the login
keychain). Below the list of keychains is a list of categories of items that are stored in the keychain.
The categories and their descriptions are covered in Table 8-1. On the right side is the
view area, where, at the bottom, the individual items stored in the keychain are listed. Above
that is a view that provides some basic information about the selected item.
Table 8-1. Categories of Items Stored in Your Keychain
Category Description
Passwords These are your passwords, which are broken into three subcategories:
AppleShare: These are your passwords associated with file servers and other
people’s computers that you have accounts on.
Application: These passwords are associated with specific applications. They can be
used for just about anything, including Internet sites, but rather than being
associated with the site they are associated with the application.
Internet: These are your Internet passwords, which include certain web site login
information, as well as mail accounts and other Internet server credentials.