Bugtraq: Cleartext Password display in NS Communicator

[fred () DOTCOM FR (Fred Albrecht)]

The following has been tested with Netscape Communicator 4.0 on NT 4 and
4.0b4 on Linux with the same results :

Problem:

  The plaintext password for a machine accessed through FTP is
  displayed by Communicator in some cases :


Method for reproduction

1. start NS Communicator
2. enter a URL of the form « ftp://user () host »
3. fill in the password in the box that Communicator pops up
4. when the file list is displayed, follow the « Parent Directory » link
5. click « back » (seems to be optional in Linux)

The password is now plainly visible in the URL field :
    « ftp://user:passwd () host »

This is of course a bad thing especially since JavaScript programs can
access the history list.  I haven't had time to experiment with
JavaScript regarding this but I'm certain someone will :)

This has interesting potential.

Netscape has been notified of the problem.

Fred.
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