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https://github.com/wincent/secure-notes-exporter

🔐 Export Secure Notes from the OS X keychain
https://github.com/wincent/secure-notes-exporter

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🔐 Export Secure Notes from the OS X keychain

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README 

        
# secure-notes-exporter



Exports the "Secure Notes" from your OS X keychain into a CSV file that can be imported into [1Password](https://agilebits.com/onepassword) or [LastPass](https://lastpass.com/).



## Usage



1. Clone the repo.

2. Open the Xcode project file and Build (alternatively, just run `make` from the terminal).

3. Install built binary somewhere in your `PATH`.

4. Run the binary; the decrypted contents of the notes will be printed to standard out:



```bash

secure-notes-exporter > ~/notes.csv

```



You will have to click the "Allow" (or "Always Allow") button in the dialog that pops up for each "Secure Note" in your keychain; it's a little painful, but still better than manually copying and pasting each individual item.



**NOTE:** The generated CSV contains the decrypted plain-text of your "Secure Notes", so make sure you keep it somewhere safe until you import it into 1Password or LastPass, and securely delete it immediately afterwards.



## Importing the generated CSV into LastPass



For up-to-date instructions, consult [the LastPass website](https://helpdesk.lastpass.com/getting-started/importing-from-other-password-managers/#Importing+from+a+Generic+CSV+File).



At the time of writing, the procedure is:



1. From the LastPass browser extension menu, choose "Tools" > "Import From" > "Other".

2. On the page that appears, choose "Generic CSV File" from the "Source" menu.

3. Click "Import".

4. Choose your exported CSV file.

5. Follow the on-screen prompts.



## Background



For many years, I used the OS X keychain to store all of my passwords, and additionally information that was sensitive but wasn't a password. I did this because I wanted to avoid vendor lock-in with a small company such as [AgileBits](https://agilebits.com/) (makers of [1Password](https://agilebits.com/onepassword)), which at the time was completely unproven (the [first alphas](https://agilebits.com/onepassword/mac/release_notes) of 1Password came out in 2006).



Of course, I knew that I still wasn't free from vendor lock-in, as I was effectively locking myself into Apple's proprietary keychain format and implementation. Nevertheless, I felt better about this because I knew that I was likely to be an Apple user for a very long time. They'd also done much to earn my trust in terms of their relatively good security record.



Unfortunately, each upgrade to a new machine brought with it some pain as I either had to blow away the login keychain on the new machine (by replacing it with the old keychain), or I had to manually merge the keychains.



This latter process was particularly tedious. Even if you set a blank password on your keychain to expedite things, you still had to click on a permission dialog for every single item you wished to import. Ouch.



Finally, after much deliberation I decided to give in and move my sensitive information to LastPass. I was sick of these keychain migrations and decided to do one last migration to end them all. Additionally, as I become more and more mobile-dependent, I wanted to be able to access the exact same passwords on all of my devices. (Apple had recently come out with iCloud Keychain, but I tried it and found it to contain a weak, insufficient subset of LastPass's features.)



The spectre of vendor lock-in looms large with LastPass, of course, but I feel they've done well to establish a track record. I can export my vault to XML too, which means I can back it up in a non-proprietary format.



LastPass is truly ugly, hideously ugly, but I think it's the best choice out there for features, cross-platform support and security. Additionally, it is fairly priced.



Migrating my passwords into LastPass wasn't too bad using tools like [this script](https://gist.github.com/rwest/1583781). But there was nothing to get my 200+ "Secure Notes" migrated short of copying and pasting them. I looked at using the `security` command-line tool that comes with OS X, but it doesn't export the information in a very useful format.



So, with a few hours of hacking I produced `secure-notes-exporter`. The code is ugly, and I'm sure my lack of knowledge about Core Foundation idioms shows, but the code works.