Which products use Cloud Keychain and which use Agile Keychain?

beala

As discussed here, there are two keychain formats. The legacy Agile format, which leaves some fields unencrypted, and the Cloud format which encrypts and authenticates the majority (all?) of the fields. This is a followup to my tweet asking which products use which format. Thanks!

jpgoldberg

Hi @beala,

At this time (August 22, 2013), 1Password 4 for iOS (released late 2012) is the only fully released version that is using the 1Password 4 Cloud Keychain Format. However, 1Password 4 for Mac, Beta is also using this. It is being actively developed for Windows and Android, but there is no public Beta of those, nor can I give you a timeline. (We don't like to talk about such things until they are delivered.)

Note that rolling out a new data format that is used for synching among different versions and on different platforms is a necessarily slow process. We can't simply replace the Agile Keychain with the new format until we know that the tools people are using everywhere they data gets synchronized to can handle for format. So you will see that at the moment that the new format is only synched over iCloud. This is so that it doesn't conflict with existing synching over Dropbox.

The migration from the Agile Keychain format to the new one is something that will take time. (Our migration from the OS X Keychain to the Agile Keychain Format back in 2008-2009 was easier because back then 1Password was Mac only. On the other hand, this migration is easier because we've learned a lot about handling data format migrations and in many respects it isn't as radical as the previous one.)

Anyway, I hope this helps. I know I'm being vague about dates and timelines, but if you've got other questions, I'll be happy to see what I can address.

Cheers,

-j

–-
Jeffrey Goldberg
Chief Defender Against the Dark Arts @ AgileBits
http://agilebits.com

sjk

Thanks for that clear writeup, @jpgoldberg, and to @beala for asking! It helped confirm my understanding of options with 1P3 (OS X) and 1P4 (iOS and OS X) usage and synching. With 1P3 still in the picture I can't fully migrate from Agile Keychain and Dropbox Sync to Cloud Keychain and iCloud.

khad

Not yet. Soon, though. :)

Urda

With the coming version of 1Password Version 4, we will be given the "Cloud Keychain" format.

My question is, how will the different versions of Windows and Mac interop with this new format? The iPhone version can already handle the new keychain, but say when the Mac version is released, how will the Windows client access the new keychain? Will the current keychain remain in the current format until AgileBits gets all platforms on the same page?

khad

Good question, @Urda! I merged your post with this existing thread (which is also a bit broader in scope). 1Password 4 for Mac still reads the Agile Keychain format for backward compatibility, but work is underway for 1Password 4 for Windows as well.

Urda

Thanks @khad!

khad

Cheers! :)

benfdc

It’s time to update the last paragraph of this page.

khad

Thanks, Ben!