Technical FAQ Frequently Asked Questions about the usage of KeePass.

• I've saved my options, but when I reopen KeePass I get the old options. What's wrong?

• Why doesn't KeePass 2.x run on my computer?
• Why does KeePass 2.x crash when starting it from a network drive/share?
• Why does KeePass 2.x show a FIPS compliance error at startup?
• Why doesn't the CHM help file work?
• Where can I find more application icons for Windows shortcuts?
• How can I add more client icons for password entries?
• Does KeePass support a mini mode?
• Why doesn't KeePass lock after Auto-Type?
• Why doesn't Auto-Type work correctly on Polish systems?

• Is Auto-Type keylogger-safe?
• Can Auto-Type locate child controls?
• Could you add the ... encryption algorithm to KeePass?
• Why doesn't KeePass lock when Windows locks and a KeePass sub-dialog is open?
• Printing creates a temporary file. Will it be erased securely?

• Can I directly edit file attachments?
• How to store and work with large amounts of (formatted) text?

  I've saved my options, but when I reopen KeePass I get the old options. What's wrong?

KeePass supports two different locations for storing configuration information: the global configuration file in the KeePass directory and a local, user-dependent one in the user's private configuration folder. Most likely you do not have write access to your global configuration file.

For more details, see Configuration.

  Why doesn't KeePass 2.x run on my computer?

Symptoms: When trying to run KeePass 2.x on Windows ≤ XP, an error message like the following is displayed:
"A required .DLL file, MSCOREE.DLL, was not found", or
"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)".

Cause: KeePass 2.x requires Microsoft .NET Framework ≥ 2.0.

Resolution: Install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher. It is available as a free download from the Microsoft website: Microsoft .NET Framework download. Alternatively, you can install it through Windows Update (the framework is an optional component).

KeePass 1.x does not require this framework.

  Why does KeePass 2.x crash when starting it from a network drive/share?

Symptoms: When trying to run KeePass 2.x from a network drive/share, you get an error message like the following:
"Application has generated an exception that could not be handled", or
"KeePass has encountered a problem and needs to close".

Cause: The strict default security policy by the Microsoft .NET Framework disallows running .NET applications from a network drive/share.

Recommended resolution: Copy/install KeePass 2.x onto a local hard disk, and run the copy.

Alternative, not recommended resolution: Configure the security policy to allow running .NET applications from network drives/shares. Ask your administrator to do this (administrative rights are required). If you got administrative rights and want to do it yourself, you can use the Code Access Security Policy Tool (Caspol.exe) that ships with the .NET framework (helpful instructions can be found here and here).

  Why does KeePass 2.x show a FIPS compliance error at startup?

Symptoms: When trying to run KeePass 2.x, you get an error message like the following:
"This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.".

Cause: KeePass uses the AES/Rijndael encryption and SHA-256 hashing algorithms, for which the Microsoft .NET Framework provides implementations. These implementations might not be FIPS compliant. If the local security policy of the system enforces the usage of FIPS compliant implementations, KeePass cannot run and shows an error message.

Resolution: Configure the local security policy of the system to allow FIPS non-compliant algorithm implementations. To do this, go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy, open Local Policies -> Security Options, and change the option 'System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing' to 'Disabled'.

Alternative resolution: Download and run the following Windows registry file: FipsDisable.reg. By running this file (i.e. importing the modifications in this file into the registry), FIPS compliance enforcement is disabled.

Note: Currently only weaker cryptographic algorithms in the Microsoft .NET Framework are FIPS compliant. As security is the top priority for the KeePass project, an option to use these weaker FIPS compliant algorithms will not be added. Future .NET frameworks might have FIPS compliant implementations of the algorithms that KeePass requires.

  Why doesn't the CHM help file work?

Symptoms: When trying to open the KeePass CHM help file from a remote computer or shared network drive, it's not displayed correctly (navigation aborted, ...).

Solution: See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-026.

  Where can I find more application icons for Windows shortcuts?

Application icons are icons in Windows ICO format. They can be used in Windows shortcuts and/or as file association icons. The KeePass executable contains various application icons which can be used for these purposes. Additional application icons are available from the "Ext/Icons" directory of the KeePass source code download. Most of them, shown at right, are slight variations of the main KeePass icon. Even more, contributed icons (by users) can be found on the plugins page. If you have multiple KeePass databases, you can use differently colored KeePass application icons in order to distinguish them. These icons are not included in the binary distribution because this would make the application file too large.

  How can I add more client icons for password entries?

Client icons are the icons used for password entries and groups within KeePass. Each entry can be assigned its own icon. You can import your own icons into KeePass databases. For this, click the 'Add...' button in the icon picker dialog. Images are automatically resized to 16x16, if they are larger or smaller. Supported formats are BMP, EMF, GIF, ICO, JPEG, PNG, TIFF and WMF.

  Can I directly edit file attachments?

No, this is not possible (exception: text files, see working with large texts). In order to edit attachments, you need to save them to a (temporary) file, edit it using an external application, import it back to KeePass as attachment, and finally delete the temporary file.

There will no feature be implemented that automates these steps, because of security problems. To see the problems, let's assume that KeePass would support editing attachments. When you click a button, KeePass would save the attachment to a file and open it using its associated external application. When the external application is closed, KeePass would import the temporary file and delete it securely. But what happens when KeePass is closed before the external application? KeePass cannot delete the file because it's eventually locked by the external application. Theoretically KeePass could tell the user this fact before closing, but what to do when the computer shuts down? Here, there's no time left to ask the user what to do. The temporary file would have been leaked, i.e. left unencryptedly on disk, which is obviously very bad.

One could argue that the leakage would only be temporary: at the next start, KeePass could scan the temporary directory for remaining files and delete them. Anyway, the files would be freely accessible (unencrypted) by all other applications during a complete computer shutdown and boot process. If you don't start KeePass on this computer ever again, the file is leaked forever. As KeePass is designed to be portable, i.e. may be securely used on many computers, this temporary leakage is unacceptable.

  Does KeePass support a mini mode?

  Why doesn't KeePass lock after Auto-Type?

  Why doesn't Auto-Type work correctly on Polish systems?

On Polish systems, the default auto-type hot key Ctrl-Alt-A conflicts with a system command and is frequently used in typing. Therefore, auto-type is often executed accidentally.

The global auto-type hot key can be changed to a different key combination in the KeePass options (see Auto-Type for details).

  Why doesn't printing work in KeePass 1.x?

Symptoms: When trying to print a password list in KeePass 1.x, nothing happens after clicking OK in the 'Print Options' dialog.

Cause: KeePass 1.x uses the application associated with .html files to print the password list. If this application doesn't support the "print" shell verb (like Mozilla Firefox), nothing happens.

Resolution: Associate .html files with a different application that supports the "print" shell verb (like Internet Explorer).

Alternative Resolution / Workaround: Click 'File' -> 'Print Preview' in KeePass 1.x and manually print the document in the application that just opened the file.

  Is Auto-Type keylogger-safe?

Is the Auto-Type feature resistant to keyloggers?

  Can Auto-Type locate child controls?

No. Auto-Type only checks whether the title of the currently active top level window matches.

Browsers like Mozilla Firefox completely draw the window (all controls) themselves, without using standard Windows controls. Consequently it is technically impossible for KeePass to check whether an URL matches (methods like creating a screenshot and using optical character recognition are not reliable and secure). Also, it's impossible to check which child control currently has the focus. These problems can only be avoided by using browser integration plugins, i.e. not using auto-type at all.

The user must make sure that the focus is placed in the correct control before starting auto-type.

  Could you add the ... encryption algorithm to KeePass?

  Why doesn't KeePass lock when Windows locks and a KeePass sub-dialog is open?

KeePass automatically tries to lock its workspace when Windows is locked, with one exception: when a KeePass sub-dialog (like the 'Edit Entry' window) is currently opened, the workspace is not locked.

To understand why this behavior makes sense, it is first important to know what happens when the workspace is locked. When locking, KeePass completely closes the database and only remembers several view parameters, like the last selected group, the top visible entry, selected entries, etc. From a security point of view, this achieves best security possible: breaking a locked workspace is equal to breaking the database itself.

Now back to the original question. Let's assume an edit dialog is open and the workstation locks. What should KeePass do now? Obviously, it's too late to ask the user what to do (the workstation is locked already and no window can't be displayed), consequently KeePass must make an automatic decision. There are several possibilities:

• Do not save the database and lock.
  In this case, all unsaved data of the database would be lost. This not only applies to the data entered in the current dialog, but to all other entries that have been modified previously.
• Save the database and lock.
  In this case, possibly unwanted changes are saved. Often you open files, try something, having in mind that you can just close the file without saving the changes. KeePass has an option 'Automatically save database when KeePass closes or the workspace is locked'. If this option is enabled and no sub-dialog is open, it's clear what to do: try to save the database and if successful: lock the workspace. But what to do with the unsaved changes in the sub-dialog? Should it be saved automatically, taking away the possibility of pressing the 'Cancel' button?
• Save to a temporary location and lock.
  While this sounds the best alternative at first glance, there are several problems with it, too. First of all, saving to a temporary location could fail (for example there could be too few disk space or some other program like virus scanner could have blocked it). Secondly, saving to a temporary location isn't uncritical from a security point of view. When having to choose such a location, mostly the user's temporary directory on the hard disk is chosen (because it likely has enough free space, required rights for access, etc.). Therefore, KeePass databases could be leaked and accumulated there. It's not clear what should happen if the computer is shutdown or crashes while being locked. When the database is opened the next time, should it use the database stored in the temporary directory instead? What should happen if the 'real' database has been modified in the meanwhile (quite a realistic situation if you're carrying your database on an USB stick)?

Obviously, none of these alternatives is satisfactory. Therefore, KeePass implements the following simple and easy to understand behavior:

When Windows is locked and a KeePass sub-dialog is opened, the KeePass workspace is not locked.

This simple concept avoids all the problems above. The user is responsible for the state of the program.

Security consequence: the database is left open when Windows locks. Normally, you are the only one who can log back in to Windows. When someone else logs in (like administrator), he can't use your programs anyway. By default, KeePass keeps in-memory passwords encrypted, therefore it does not matter if Windows caches the process to disk at some time. So, your passwords are pretty safe anyway.

Note. On Windows ≤ XP, the 'Terminal Services' Windows service should be enabled. If this service is disabled, locking KeePass when Windows locks might not work. This service isn't required on newer operating systems.

  Printing creates a temporary file. Will it be erased securely?

KeePass creates a temporary HTML file when printing password lists and showing print previews. This file is securely erased (i.e. overwritten multiple times before being removed from the file system tree) when closing the database.

You must wait for the file being printed completely before closing KeePass (and close the print preview before closing KeePass), otherwise it could happen that the printing application blocks KeePass from deleting the file.

There is no way around the temporary file in the current printing system. If you want to write a plugin that directly sends the data to the printer, you can find a plugin development tutorial here: KeePass 2.x Plugin Development.

  How to store and work with large amounts of (formatted) text?

KeePass has a built-in editor that allows working conveniently with large amounts of (formatted) texts. To add a large text to an entry, import the file as attachment. The built-in editor supports *.TXT (simple text) and *.RTF (formatted text) files. In order to edit an attachment, right-click onto the entry in the main window, point on 'Attachments' and click 'Edit YourFile.*'. Alternatively, if the text file is the only attachment, you can even open it by just double-clicking onto it in the main window (enable showing the attachment column in 'View' -> 'Show Columns' -> 'Attachments'). Alternatively, it's also possible to click the name of the attachment in the entry details view in the main window. For TXT files, the built-in editor supports standard operations like cut, copy, paste, undo, word wrap, etc. For RTF files, additionally standard formatting commands are available: choosing the font, font size, bold, italic, underline, strikeout, text and background colors, align left / center / right, etc.