A proof-of-concept (PoC) has been developed for a security vulnerability affecting the KeePass password manager, potentially allowing an attacker to retrieve a victim’s master password in cleartext.
Tracked as CVE-2023-32784, the flaw impacts KeePass versions 2.x for Windows, Linux, and macOS and is expected to be addressed in the upcoming version 2.54, set for release soon.
The vulnerability relies on an attacker having already compromised the target’s computer and the victim entering the password via keyboard input rather than copying it from the clipboard. The flaw involves traces of user input being left in the program’s memory, enabling an attacker to dump the memory and reconstruct the password in plaintext, except for the first character.
Users are advised to update to KeePass 2.54 when it becomes available. This disclosure follows a previous medium-severity flaw (CVE-2023-24055) discovered in KeePass, allowing the retrieval of cleartext passwords from the password database through write access to the software’s XML configuration file. KeePass has clarified that its password database is not intended to be secure against an attacker with local PC access.
Additionally, recent research by Google identified a vulnerability in password managers like Bitwarden, Dashlane, and Safari, which could be exploited to automatically fill saved credentials into untrusted web pages, potentially leading to account takeovers.
