Setup guide

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Chapter 6 –
Future Guidance
The first keychain configured here is designed to protect credentials that are
accessed frequently and automatically whenever a user is logged in. A good example
of this would be an e-mail account password used by the Mail application. If the
keychain holding the credentials used by Mail is set to re-lock every 5 minutes, it is
likely that the user will have to re-authenticate the keychain every time the Mail
application tries to check for new mail. Most users will find this unacceptable. A
keychain protecting credentials for the user’s e-mail account should be automatically
unlocked when the user logs in, and should only re-lock when the user logs out or the
machine sleeps. Also, each item within the keychain should be configured to allow
unrestricted access only to the application for which that credential was intended. All
other applications should be required to re-authenticate for every access.
1. Start the Keychain Access application.
2. Select New keychain from the File menu.
3. Select a location for the new keychain.
4. Type a name for the new keychain in the Save As box, and click on Create
(Figure 32). For this particular example, the name of the new keychain is
“mail_keychain.”
Figure 32: New Mail Keychain
5. Select a new password for the keychain and enter it in the window that
appears on the screen. Use the password assistant (the “i” button) to check
the strength of the password.
6. Click on Show Keychains to display available keychains, if needed.