protect a workflow with PIN or a password?

[rspike12]

Hi

I created a workflow to check my bills.

Is it possible to protect the workflow with a PIN or a phrase password

to avoid that someone else can watch my files?

 

Many thanks

[vitor]

No, you cannot password-protect a workflow. You may, however, be able to password-protect your information on the workflow, or one of the steps. It all depends both on how your workflow is constructed, and more critically on how you’re storing your information, so we’d need more information on that, to be able to provide guidance.

[rspike12]

my workflow is set to open a ftp address with chrome (I use this ftp address to watch my company's paycheck).

the ftp address request a userID and a password and I told Chrome to remember both...

now I'd like to have a PIN or a password to protect my workflow.

[vitor]

I’ll advise against saving your passwords in Chrome. They may have changed their stance, but their initial blatant dismissal and needed pressure for change should leave you cautious.

You gave no further details about how the workflow itself works, so we can’t really advise more. Either way, if you’re letting your data insecurely accessible outside the workflow (by having access to it unrestricted in the browser), securing the workflow itself would accomplish nothing but the minor of obscurities.

If you really need that data safe, you have to protect it at its critical point of access. Don’t let Chrome save the password, and enter it each time (or use a proper password manager, like 1Password).

[deanishe]

I’ll advise against saving your passwords in Chrome. They may have changed their stance, but their initial blatant dismissal and needed pressure for change should leave you cautious.

 

They have changed their stance: you now have to enter your user password to view a password (which makes it as safe/unsafe as Safari and Keychain).

 

my workflow is set to open a ftp address with chrome (I use this ftp address to watch my company's paycheck).

the ftp address request a userID and a password and I told Chrome to remember both...

now I'd like to have a PIN or a password to protect my workflow.

 

Your PIN would be protecting nothing but a URL. The URL is probably available in your Chrome history, anyway (if you didn't use porn mode), and definitely in your list of saved passwords.

 

If you want to do this anyway, you have 2 options as I see it:

 

1. Store the URL in Keychain using the security utility. At least this way, it isn't in plain text on your HD.
2. Encrypt the URL, require a password to be entered as a query to your workflow, and decrypt the URL before opening it in your browser.

In either case, you're not adding much in the way of security.

 

If you want actual security that isn't easy to get around, do what Vitor says and use a proper password manager like 1Password to store the username and password.