GNU Emacs Password History Vulnerability

BID:1127

Info

GNU Emacs Password History Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 1127
Class: Design Error
CVE:
Remote: No
Local: Yes
Published: Apr 18 2000 12:00AM
Updated: Apr 18 2000 12:00AM
Credit: This vulnerability was announced in an advisory from RUS-CERT on April 18, 2000.
Vulnerable: GNU Emacs 20.6
GNU Emacs 20.5
GNU Emacs 20.4
GNU Emacs 20.3
GNU Emacs 20.2
GNU Emacs 20.1
GNU Emacs 20.0
+ Debian Linux 3.0 sparc
+ Debian Linux 3.0 s/390
+ Debian Linux 3.0 ppc
+ Debian Linux 3.0 mipsel
+ Debian Linux 3.0 mips
+ Debian Linux 3.0 m68k
+ Debian Linux 3.0 ia-64
+ Debian Linux 3.0 ia-32
+ Debian Linux 3.0 hppa
+ Debian Linux 3.0 arm
+ Debian Linux 3.0 alpha
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

GNU Emacs Password History Vulnerability

A vulnerability exists in the way in which passwords are stored in history, in Emacs 20, from GNU. Passwords read using the read-password function under emacs-lisp are not cleared from the history cache. This means that anyone who has access to an Emacs session on a terminal can use the history to potentially gain passwords captured.

Exploit / POC

GNU Emacs Password History Vulnerability

Simply going through the history should reveal passwords that are present in the buffers.

Solution / Fix

GNU Emacs Password History Vulnerability

Solution:
Currently the SecurityFocus staff are not aware of any vendor supplied patches for this issue. If you feel we are in error or are aware of more recent information, please mail us at: [email protected].

A patch was issued from RUS-Cert when they issued an advisory for this problem.


GNU Emacs 20.6

References

GNU Emacs Password History Vulnerability

References:
© CVE.report 2026 |

Use of this information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are NO warranties, implied or otherwise, with regard to this information or its use. Any use of this information is at the user's risk. It is the responsibility of user to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content. EACH USER WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY consequences of his or her direct or indirect use of this web site. ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. This site will NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT or any other kind of loss.

CVE, CWE, and OVAL are registred trademarks of The MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CVE content is MITRE's CVE web site. This site includes MITRE data granted under the following license.

Free CVE JSON API cve.report/api

CVE.report and Source URL Uptime Status status.cve.report