Notes on Plain Text Export & Import
Warning: The Export of sensitive information from a Password Safe database to a text file has serious security consequences. This operation will create an unprotected copy of the passwords in the database. Deleting this copy after use is not sufficient and other actions should be taken to properly erase the data (e.g. third party 'shredding' utilities). The export of sensitive data effectively bypasses the security of the Password Safe program.
Note: The Export and Import to/from text files feature has been changed in V3.06. This page describes the current format.
Exported text will:
- Begin with a Title Row as the first record in the text file
- Use a delimiter to replace the 'newline' character in a multi-line Notes field and the period ('.') if present in the Title field. The default is '»' [Alt+0187], which may be overridden if needed.
Imported text is assumed to have:
- A Title Row as the first record in the text file.
- A delimiter to reinstate the 'newline' character in a multi-line Notes field and the period ('.'), if present, in the Title field. The default is '»' [Alt+0187], which may be overridden if needed.>
The Title Row for full data export currently contains the following fields by default, separated by a tab.
- Group/Title
- Username
- Password
- URL
- AutoType
- Created Time
- Password Modified Time
- Last Access Time
- Password Expiry Date
- Password Expiry Interval
- Record Modified Time
- Password Policy
- History
- Run Command
- DCA
- Protected Status
- Symbol list for password generation
- Notes
When exporting data, you may use the 'Advanced' feature to exclude any number of these fields from the Title Row and records. The Advanced option also allows you to specify a subset of the entries to export, as shown below.
During Import, the supplied Title Row must include 'column headings' that match exactly one of the above. If any 'column heading' is repeated, only the data in the last one will be added to the entries during import. If a 'column heading' does not match one of the above, the data in that column will be ignored during import. The fields must be separated with the field separator specified for the data in the Import Text dialog box.
Notes:
- To import any data into Password Safe, the Title and Password fields must be present and neither blank nor empty, as it would be if adding a new entry to an existing database.
- There is no restriction on the order of the 'column headings'. Password Safe will use the supplied Title Row to correctly add the specified data to the right field.
Data Formats
| Column Heading/Field | Comments |
| Column Heading/Field | If present, groups are separated by periods ('.'). The Title field cannot be blank, empty or contain the delimiter character. |
| Username | |
| Password | Cannot be blank or empty. |
| URL | |
| AutoType | |
| Created Time | See note 1 below |
| Password Modified Time | See note 1 below |
| Last Access Time | See note 1 below |
| Password Expiry Date | See note 1 below |
| Password Expiry Interval | See note 1 below |
| Record Modified Time | See note 1 below |
| Password Policy | See note 3 below |
| History | See note 2 below |
| Run command | |
| DCA | = 'Double Click Action'. See note 4 below |
| Shift+DCA | = 'Double Click Action'. See note 4 below |
| Protect | |
| Symbols | |
| Notes |
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Time fields can be one of the following 7 formats: |
| 1. | yyyy/MM/dd hh:mm:ss | e.g., 2007/01/26 19:31:25 |
| 2. | ddd MMM dd hh:mm:ss yyyy | e.g., Fri Jan 26 19:31:25 2007 |
| 3. | yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss | e.g., 2007-01-26T19:31:25 |
| 4. | yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ (XML only) | e.g., 2007-01-26T19:31:25Z |
| 5. | yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss±hh:mm (XML only) | e.g., 2007-01-26T19:31:25+01:00 |
| 6. | 0 | Leave the field unset |
| 7. | now | Use the time of the import operation |
where:
| yyyy | The year in full. Value is between 1970 and 2038. |
| MM | The month; e.g. 01 = January, 02 = February etc. |
| dd | The day of the month |
| MMM | The short form of the month; e.g. Jan = January, Feb = February etc. |
| ddd | The short form of the day of the week; e.g. Mon = Monday, Tue = Tuesday, etc. |
| hh | The hour using a 24-hour clock. |
| mm | The minutes |
| ss | The seconds |
Note: Format '2' is the output from the ANSI C function 'asctime' and format '3' conforms to the ISO 8601 standard.
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Password history is represented in the exported entry record as a text field comprising a header followed by the required number of entries of old passwords: |
Password History Header:
- 1 hexadecimal digit - status for saving PWH for this entry (0 = no; 1 = yes)
- 2 hexadecimal digits - maximum number of entries in this entry
- 2 hexadecimal digits - number of entries currently saved
Each Password History Entry:
- 8 hexadecimal digits - time oldpassword was set
- 4 hexadecimal digits - length of old password
- character string - old password>
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The Password Policy is represented in the exported entry record as a text field 'ffffnnnllluuudddsss' in hexadecimal format, e.g. 'F000010004002005003'. 6 hexadecimal values are contained in this format. The first value has 4 digits, all other 3. 'ffffnnnllluuudddsss' means in detail:
The Password Policy 'F000010004002005003' means
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The following values for Double Click Action are available:
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