Google has been criticized by security firms for allowing uninhibited access to a person’s saved passwords in Chrome but the latest Chrome builds appear to fix this issue. Google+ user, François Beaufort dove into the source code for the latest Chrome build for Mac and discovered a flag called:
“chrome://flags/#enable-password-manager-reauthentication”
The flag requires users to enter in their system password in order to gain access to saved passwords in Chrome. Once authenticated, Chrome will not ask you to authenticate again for 60 seconds. Previously, Chrome users could simply navigate to “chrome://settings/passwords” to gain access to all saved passwords.
As of now, the latest Chromium build for Mac is the only version of Chrome that supports this new flag. The feature is likely to come to other platforms but will need to be reworked for each operating system’s authentication measures.
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[Source: François Beaufort (Google+) | Chromium Code Reviews]
