Saving passwords for remote systems

When you use the Remote System Explorer, you can save passwords for remote systems on your local PC. The stored passwords are then retrieved whenever a password is required to connect. When you save your password for a particular remote system, you will not be prompted to sign on when you try to connect to that system.

When you first try to connect to a remote system, you will be prompted with the following dialog:

Password Prompt

To save this password on your local PC:

  1. Enter your user ID
  2. Enter your password
  3. Select Save user ID
  4. Select Save password

The next time that you connect to the remote system, you will not be prompted to sign on again.

Note: If you still want to be prompted for your user ID and password, right-click on the subsystem and select Connect....

Where passwords are stored

RSE uses the Eclipse-supplied keyring file to store passwords. This is the same keyring used by other eclipse services such as the Eclipse Team support. By default, this is stored in the configuration area under org.eclipse.core.runtime/.keyring in an encrypted format. The encryption does not require a password itself so anyone using Eclipse is capable of decrypting this file.

Users can choose to store the keyring in a different file, or provide a password for doing real encryption by using runtime options when starting Eclipse as follows: 


eclipse -keyring C:/mykeyring.txt -password mypasswd
Even so, encryption is not particularly strong. So if your workstation is not protected you should remove your passwords and not store them in the future.

Adding, changing, and removing stored passwords

You can use the password information page to add, change, and remove stored passwords for remote systems:

  1. Select Window -> Preferences
  2. Expand Remote Systems
  3. Select Passwords

Use the Add, Change, and Remove buttons to manage your password information for remote systems.