How to view internet-passwords from Keychain using Java (mac)

Question

I would like to create a simple java app (for mac) that takes in a website and outputs my password associated with the website in Keychain.

My problem is that my app can't read the password from the output. If I manually write:

security find-internet-password -gs www.google.com

into the Terminal I get a few lines of info and then -> password: "mypassword". But in my application I only see the lines of info but the last line which should be the password is not there or null.

My code:

public static void command(){
    try{

        String command = "security find-internet-password -gs www.google.com";
        Process child = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);

        BufferedReader r = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(child.getInputStream()));
        String s;

        while ((s = r.readLine()) != null) {
            System.out.println(s);
        }
        System.out.println(r.readLine());
        r.close();
    }
    catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

I'm not getting any errors but simply the code above is not showing the password. I'm using Eclipse if that matters. Thanks

The application prints:

keychain: "/Users/*username*/Library/Keychains/login.keychain"
class: "inet"
attributes:
    0x00000007 <blob>="www.google.com"
    0x00000008 <blob>=<NULL>
    "acct"<blob>="*username*"
    "atyp"<blob>="http"
    "cdat"<timedate>=0x323031*numbers*3333325A00  "2011*numbers*132Z\000"
    "crtr"<uint32>="rimZ"
    "cusi"<sint32>=<NULL>
    "desc"<blob>=<NULL>
    "icmt"<blob>=<NULL>
    "invi"<sint32>=<NULL>
    "mdat"<timedate>=0x3230331*numbers*33834375A00  "20115*numbers*3847Z\000"
    "nega"<sint32>=<NULL>
    "path"<blob>="/"
    "port"<uint32>=0x00000000 
    "prot"<blob>=<NULL>
    "ptcl"<uint32>="htps"
    "scrp"<sint32>=<NULL>
    "sdmn"<blob>="www.google.com"
    "srvr"<blob>="www.google.com"
    "type"<uint32>=<NULL>

but the last line is missing and should be

password: "mypassword"

Edited

Is it the InputStreamReader that does not read the password? Is there another way to get the password?

can you show us what is printed in general? and what should be printed instead. does the program complete? — Logan Murphy, Mar 21 '14 at 20:24
have tried running java from the command line? might have to run as admin — Logan Murphy, Mar 21 '14 at 20:45
@LoganMurphy not sure what you mean but I am admin and when I run the app (or type the code in terminal) I get a message that asks if security is allowed to access confidential info stored in "www.google.com" in your keychain, which I answer allow. — PaprikaSauce, Mar 21 '14 at 20:54

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 29 '14 at 13:47

The reason why you do not get the password in the output is that it is not printed to the stdout but to the stderr instead.

If you replace child.getInputStream() with child.getErrorStream() in your code will get you righ that Password:secret! line.

You could use e.g. the following modified version of your code:

public static boolean command(String host) {
    try {

        String command = "security find-internet-password -gs " + host;
        Process child = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);

        try (BufferedReader out = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                child.getInputStream()));
                BufferedReader err = new BufferedReader(
                        new InputStreamReader(child.getErrorStream()))) {
            String user = null;
            String password = null;
            String s;

            while ((s = out.readLine()) != null) {
                if (s.matches(" *\"acct\".*")) {
                    user = s.replaceAll("^.*=\"", "").replace("\"", "");
                }
            }
            s = err.readLine();
            password = s.replaceAll("^.*: *\"", "").replace("\"", "");
            System.out.println("user: " + user);
            System.out.println("pwd: " + password);
            return true;
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        return false;
    }
}

How to view internet-passwords from Keychain using Java (mac)

1 Answers1