COMMAND
netscape
SYSTEMS AFFECTED
Win 9x, NT
PROBLEM
Protecting against Administrators is not easily done with NT. You
must trust your Administrators. However, this particular piece
of information pertains to the possibility that Administrators
might easily obtain information regarding your passwords to
off-site POP3 accounts. This might not be widely expected, or
known. Following was found by Alexandre Viale.
So, Administrators on an NT box (W95/W98 too?) may access
mailboxes used by people using Netscape Communicator/Mail
notification v4.x, without password.
When using Netscape Messenger, even if you do NOT check the
"remember password" configuration box, Communicator 4.5 (this
version only) always saves your password in registry for
potential use by Netscape Mail Notification.
If you use Netscape Mail Notification, with any version of
Netscape, the password is asked once then saved, in the same
place:
HKCU\Software\Netcape\Netscape Navigator\biff\Users\<user>\Servers\<server>
with Administrators:Full rights
Passwords are encoded, but any administrator may read it in
registry and copy it into another computer, run Netscape Mail
Notification 4.5, and double click on the tray icon to access
users' mailboxes on any distant server.
SOLUTION
As this appears to be case with 4.5, do downgrade/upgrade.