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In Network Manager, under the Identity tab, I can enter a username and password for my OpenVPN connection. I can also enter a password for the "User private key".

Both password fields have the following options:

  • Store the password only for this user
  • Store the password for all users
  • Ask for this password every time
  • The password is not required

If I choose to store the password ("for this user" or "for all users") where is it stored?

lofidevops
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1 Answers1

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Go to the /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ directory, here all the connection details are saved.

And use the cat command or any text editor as root to view the saved passwords. There should be a security related entry, like [vpn-secrets] or [wifi-security].

[wifi-security]
auth-alg=open
group=
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
pairwise=
psk=sat004321

For VPN,

[vpn-secrets] password=arnab002

The string after psk= is the password. I think it's the same location for all users.

Arnab
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    This is correct for "store for all users". For "store only for this user", you need an application that can ask for the secrets and store them somewhere. It's up to that application, for example `nm-applet` stored the secret to the user's keyring. – thaller Feb 04 '18 at 07:43
  • so i can connect to wifi without entering any passwords, yet if I use nmcli it can't look for the password in this directory? – Michael Jul 16 '20 at 21:22