778441 - password manager fills wrong fields

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Toolkit :: Password Manager, defect)

Description

[WBT]

I've noticed on certain pages (like https://www.betterworldbooks.com/signin.aspx and the "enter" or "vote" tabs at http://contest.newyorker.com/CaptionContest.aspx) that Password Manager always only applies to the "register new user" fields, not the "login as existing user" fields.  

I'd like to see one of the following solutions:
1) Change the logic behind field selection so that Password manager works for the returning user fields, which are the right place to put stored login information. 
2) If FF can't distinguish, allow password manager to work for both pairs.  Consider security implications.
3) Provide some lookup table functionality identifying the right fields, and some UI or other relatively easy way for at least power users to indicate the right fields per-site.  I don't like this solution but it is the architecture used for some add-ons, where users report little glitches easily and then custom rules are modified. 
4) another creative solution which may be posted/referenced below.

This may be related to Bug 364970 or Bug 499223, Bug 555736, Bug 655669, or others. 
Bug 364970 Comment 10 indicates that these are WONTFIX because this is hard to fix.   I agree that recognizing the right fields all of the time is hard. However, seeing that the architecture in #3 works for plugins that are used far less, it seems like there should be some way of identifying and addressing issues with particular sites/pages where FF *always* gets it wrong.

Comment 1

[Mounir Lamouri (:mounir)]

Is any browser able to handle those cases?

Comment 2

[u354703]

Im experiencing this with firefox 14.0.1 on linux 3.5.0-2.fc17.x86_64. Didnt have this issue with the windows nightly release (not sure about the standard release)

steps to reproduce:

1) Enable master password
2) Save password for facebook.com
3) on startup go to facebook.com
4) enter master password when you're prompted
5) the new user password field is filled instead of the login password field

solution:

fill both password fields
but the windows nightly build manages to fill the right one

Comment 3

[WBT]

(In reply to Mounir Lamouri (:mounir) from comment #1)
> Is any browser able to handle those cases?

Chrome 21.0.1180.75 m and IE 9.0.8 don't even prompt for remembering the passwords in those login forms, for me.  Therefore I can't test.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to WBT from comment #3)
> (In reply to Mounir Lamouri (:mounir) from comment #1)
> > Is any browser able to handle those cases?
> 
> Chrome 21.0.1180.75 m and IE 9.0.8 don't even prompt for remembering the
> passwords in those login forms, for me.  Therefore I can't test.

so apparently this aren't proper forms?  Or, they are hard or impossible as Bug 364970 suggests.

so why should firefox work?