Password unsecurity in cc:Mail release 8

Aleph One (aleph1@DFW.NET)
Mon, 08 Sep 1997 13:17:04 -0500

Forwarded from RISKS DIGEST 19.37

Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 15:51:21 -0700
From: Carl Byington <carl@five-ten-sg.com>
Subject: Password unsecurity in cc:Mail release 8

After installing a cc:Mail release 8 postoffice (and link to smtp) on an
NT3.51 machine, I noticed that the nightly reclaim process is scheduled via
the standard NT "at" command which runs %systemroot%\~callmnt.bat. This
batch file simply runs yet another batch file %systemroot%\~ccmaint.bat.
Why do this? Because the second batch file is "hidden", but a simple
"attrib" command removes that "protection", and then your master postoffice
password is nicely visible.

But you might ask, what are the NT security permissions on these batch
files? Simply "everyone full control". Oh well, at least I don't need to
worry about forgetting that password.