Zotero conflicts with PassIFox and breaks WebDav Sync

raabf

Brief

If the Add-on called PasslFox is installed WebDav Sync will fail with Error “Please type in a password”.

AddOn PassIFox

The AddOn will auto fill username/password forms in web pages. For that it must connect to the password manager KeePass. To do that the KeePass plugin KeePassHttp starts a web server on port 19455 to which the PassIFox Addon will connect.

Reproducing:


  1. The Add-on PasslFox (mozilla.org) must be installed and activated

  2. Zotero Addon must be installed and activated.

  3. Go to Zotero Preferences -> Sync

  4. Select in File Syncing -> My Library the Protocol WebDav

  5. Provide …

    • any URL (must not be valid, but also tested with an working URL)

    • any user name (must not be valid, but also tested with an working username)

    • any password (must not be valid, but also tested with an working password)


  6. Click on Verify Server

  7. An Error will prompt with Please type in a password (so even if a password is set)

Notes

It makes no difference if KeePass is running or not.

It will be directly working again after deactivating PassIFox in the Addon settings of Firefox.

The PassIFox addon works correct also if the Zotero Addon is activated.

Expected Behaviour


  • With Verify Server the message File-Synchronising has been successfully initialized should pop up or Please provide a correct WebDav URL if the URL is not valid.

  • With Synchronising with Zotero Server he should start syncing or pops up failure messages if settings are not correct.

Observed Behaviour


  • With Verify Server the message Please type in a password pops up.

  • With Synchronising with Zotero Server the red (!) sign appears and a message The Zotero Server does not accept your password should pop up.

Environment

Zotero Reporting Bug ID: 972577535

The Messages above are translated myself from German, so they are maybe different from the original English language setting.


  • Firefox 33.0

  • PassIFox 1.1.12

  • Zotero 4.0.23.1

  • KeePass 2.26

  • KeePssHttp 1.8.3.0

  • Windows 8.1

Link to Bug Report to the PassIFox Developer
  • dstillman
    Thanks very much, but this is probably something they'd have to fix. Zotero simply uses the Firefox login manager directly to store the WebDAV password, and PassIFox is presumably interfering with that somehow.

    (I'd guess that they didn't account for non-web-page uses of the login manager. It looks like we use sort of weird values for some of the fields, but Firefox has never cared about that. PassIFox might. Relevant code is here, with relevant values defined here.)
  • aurimas
    FWIW, the alternative KeePass Firefox extension KeeFox does not seem to have this issue. So, at least until this is fixed on PassIFox's side, you can try using that.
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