Bug#429736: world readable passwords in /var/cache/debconf/config.dat

[Stefano Zacchiroli]

Package: zope-debhelper
Version: 0.3.9
Severity: grave
Tags: security

The maintainer scripts generated by zope-debhelper leave passwords in
/var/cache/debconf/config.dat. Passwords are therefor world readable by
any user of the system. Tagging this bug a security since this is a
local privilege escalation: users can access instances as the
administrator user.

As an example this is what I can read in the above mentioned file right
now:

  Name: zenoss/admin-automatic-password
  Template: zope-common/admin-automatic-password
  Value: 
  Owners: zenoss
  Flags: seen
  Variables:
   instance = zenoss
   password = ec298e16
   user = admin
   zver = 2.9

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.21-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=it_IT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=it_IT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages zope-debhelper depends on:
ii  debhelper                     5.0.50     helper programs for debian/rules
ii  perl                          5.8.8-7    Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 

zope-debhelper recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information