Mac OS X Security Keychain

The keychain is a secure database store for passwords and certificates and is created for each user account on Mac OS X.  The system software itself uses keychains for secure storage.  The “login” keychain is the default location for user credentials and should be protected, while the keychain is unlocked all passwords in the keychain can be exported.  The login keychain should be locked when the system sleeps or after long periods of inactivity.

Changing your keychain password

When a keychain mismatch occurs, the user must change their keychain password to match the password used to log on to the machine.  To correctly change your keychain password, the user will use the application Keychain Access.  Keychain Access is located in Applications\Utilities.

Change your keychain password:

  1. Select “login” under the list of keychains.
  2. From the menu at the top of the screen, click Edit.
  3. Select Change Password for Keychain “login”…
  4. Enter the current keychain password.  Remember that the “current” keychain password is the password previously used to log into the machine, before your most recent password change.
  5. Enter your new password and verify.  The new password you enter should match the password you used to log into the machine.
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