Where do browsers save/store auto fill data

Question

where do browsers store passwords and username when we opt for remember password. Is it always cookies or some other encrypted file.Also where is the data filled by auto complete functionality of browsers come from. It doesn't seem to come from cookies as same auto-complete info sometimes appears in fields of websites other than those it was previously filled in. Is it possible to retrieve data from browser itself(sensitive as well as the general one)?

Answer 1

where do browsers store passwords and username when we opt for remember password.

Depends on the browser

Is it always cookies or some other encrypted file.

If it is the browser feature, then it will never be a cookie.

If it is a website feature, then it will depend on the website (but is likely to be a cookie)

Also where is the data filled by auto complete functionality of browsers come from.

Depends on the browser

Is it possible to retrieve data from browser itself(sensitive as well as the general one)?

Not if you are Joe Arbitrary Website, that would be a disturbing security hole.

Answer 2

Password that are autocompleted by the browser are NOT saved in cookies.

Some old documentation for firefox:

• http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/904650

But why do you even want to do that ? There is no way for example in javascript to read the passwords from the users system.

Answer 3

They're probably worried about security as in using auto fill with important information having cookies would give the user more control over information given out by the user. I'm sure the way it's set up now it's protected under contractual law.