How to Preview a Secret
Previewing a secret shows it on screen without putting it in the clipboard. It is the quickest way to read a credential you need to type somewhere else, or to check you are looking at the right entry before you copy it.
Every secret is previewed the same way: select the resource, then click the eye button beside the secret in the details panel on the right of the workspace. Clicking it again hides the secret. The control is a button on the secret itself, not an entry in the Copy or right-click menus.
Previewing is not the same as Secret history, which lists earlier values of a secret. Previewing shows the current value only.
Preview a password
Select the resource and click the eye button beside the password in the details panel. Passwords can also be previewed from the Password column of the resource list, which no other secret type offers.
Preview a TOTP
passbolt supports creating TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) resources via Mobile since version 4.3.0 and from the browser since version 4.4.0. Since 4.3.0, existing TOTP codes can also be previewed in the browser.
There are two types of TOTP:
- Standalone
- That is the Passbolt Community TOTP resource, this is not linked to any passwords.
- Linked to an existing password
- The resource Passbolt was existing before the creation of the TOTP and has been linked to it.
From the Web UI, you are able to preview any TOTP shown in the column "TOTP".
Preview a pin code
Select the resource and click the eye button beside the code in the details panel.
Preview a note
A note is revealed with a Show button rather than an eye button on its own, and hidden again with Hide. Until you reveal it, the panel displays placeholder text in place of the real note, so what you see before clicking Show is not the note's content.
Preview custom fields
Each field has its own eye button, so you can reveal one field without revealing the rest. Show all reveals every field at once, and Hide all conceals them again.
Previewing a password, a TOTP, a pin code or a custom field is controlled by RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), and requires the preview feature to be enabled on your instance. Access may vary according to your organisation's policy, so if you require access, please contact your administrator. Revealing a note is not governed by this permission.
When the codes are rejected
passbolt computes these codes from the clock of the device you are working on. It does not correct any drift, and it does not use the time of the passbolt server, so a device whose clock has slipped produces codes that the other end refuses. An offset of a few tens of seconds is enough, and the exact tolerance belongs to the site checking the code, not to passbolt.
The symptom tells you where to look:
- Codes refused on several sites at once point at the clock of your device. Turn automatic time synchronisation back on, let the clock settle, then try again.
- Codes refused on one site only point at that particular entry instead: a secret that was mistyped when it was saved, or a second resource for the same site holding an outdated secret.
The above concerns the codes passbolt generates for other services. When a code protects your own passbolt account, it is the passbolt server that checks it, which is a different matter, covered by configuring your account with TOTP.