How to access an OS X keychain via Ubuntu

Question

I need to access some of the content of an old OS X keychain.

I know the password - this isn't about cracking ;-)

What I don't have is a Mac. I do have the keychain files on a backup drive.

Is there any way to get at the contents on an Ubuntu box? A port of the OS X /usr/bin/security somewhere for example?

A definitive "no" would be as useful as a "yes".

Solution 1

If you are not afraid of a small amount of scripting, there is a python wrapper for the security command with a short tutorial here. I have never had to do this before, so I can't speak to its efficacy.

Solution 2

I think you don't have a similar tool in Linux to do that.

From all the tools i have seen, they all require that you have Mac OS X to use them. For example, keychaindump requires securityd command.

So i guess the only option you have left is to borrow someone's mac.

Comments

[thirtythreeforty]

According to Wikipedia, the OS X keychain toolkit is open source. (I know it's for BSD, but...) You might be able to compile security yourself.

[Jeff Burdges]

Any idea where Mac OS X keeps the wifi asswords so we can read them with the answers?

[astex]

After following a few links, there's also this, which should provide a workable GUI.

[adrianh]

Unfortunately that doesn't help since it only gives access to the OS X keychain when running on OS X. It's just provides a python way of talking to /usr/bin/security. It doesn't help on other platforms.

[astex]

I don't think that's the case for the second solution mentioned in the comments. Sorry, I should have clarified.

[thirtythreeforty]

No, the keychain concept is to prevent people who don't know the password from accessing it. He's got the credentials, so it should be possible, with some work.

[coteyr]

He might have his password but I believe it's also encrypted with a OS X key.

[adrianh]

@coteyr - you're incorrect. Keychains can be copied between OS X machines - so they're not tied to any kind of machine specific key. Any kind of OS specific key would be trivially crackable since it would have to be public for decryption to actually happen.

[adrianh]

It does apply to that - source here bitbucket.org/kang/python-keyring-lib/src/… - OS X specific ;)

[coteyr]

Source Code May help you adrianh. Some Docs May be of use. but thats all I could find. I still know that I have a very hard time moving my keychain from one mac to another but that could be application specific. Sorry if the answer is wrong. (sorry for the double post was reading the code)

[dwlz]

The link you've referenced 404s.