What does key4.db do?

psaulm119 · Post by **psaulm119** » November 18th, 2017, 11:52 pm

I created a new profile for 57 (FWIW, old profile = 160 megs; new profile = 60 megs) and saw a file named key4.db. I always copy over my key3.db file, and decided to copy over the key4 file also, just in case.

Is this needed at all, to copy over passwords into a new profile? And if not, what is its purpose?

morat · Post by **morat** » November 19th, 2017, 2:31 am

Old format
http://www.mankier.com/5/cert8.db
http://www.mankier.com/5/key3.db

New format
http://www.mankier.com/5/cert9.db
http://www.mankier.com/5/key4.db

NSS (Network Security Services) is a set of libraries designed and maintained by Mozilla to support cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server applications.

Brummelchen · Post by **Brummelchen** » November 19th, 2017, 3:02 am

those files are not new, they were introduced 2015, not only firefox, but i saw comments for linux and thunderbird.

morat · Post by **morat** » November 19th, 2017, 6:49 am

IMO, psaulm119 should keep both formats. The NSS developers are going to stop supporting the old format.

switch Mozilla to use the cert9+key4 (aka sql) database file format
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=783994

For reading only as Bugzilla is not a forum.

therube · Post by **therube** » November 19th, 2017, 8:13 am

I created a new profile for 57 ... and saw a file named key4.db.

That was with 57 or 58 where that happened?

psaulm119 · Post by **psaulm119** » November 19th, 2017, 8:24 am

I'm not saying that key4.db was created just now, when I made my new profile, only that I just noticed it, as I normally jsut transfer over places.sqlite, key3.db, and logins.json files. But noticing the key4, I wondered if it had replaced key3, that's all. No need to copy over an unnecessary file.

therube wrote:
I created a new profile for 57 ... and saw a file named key4.db.
That was with 57 or 58 where that happened?

So for future new profiles, as far as passwords go, I only need key4 and logins.json, correct?

morat · Post by **morat** » November 19th, 2017, 8:38 am

@therube

I tested...

Firefox Portable 57 Release has the key3.db file in a fresh profile.
Firefox Portable 58 Beta has the key4.db file in a fresh profile.

C:\FirefoxPortable\Data\profile\key3.db
C:\FirefoxPortableTest\Data\profile\key4.db

mightyglydd · Post by **mightyglydd** » November 19th, 2017, 8:42 am

^Confirmed, ditto.

psaulm119 · Post by **psaulm119** » November 19th, 2017, 8:46 am

I installed 58b last night. That could be why I have key4. I usually don't worry about mixing beta and release profiles---I usually just keep the same profile for either version.

Brummelchen · Post by **Brummelchen** » November 19th, 2017, 9:33 am

it is present here since oct'19 - before beta

Post by **smsmith** » November 19th, 2017, 9:41 am

My Fx57 profile only has key3.db, while my Nightly profile has key4.db. The bug report indicated "Fixed for Fx58".

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