Component Catalog Stores Application Password in Clear and Readable Format

When you set the application identity password during application creation or when you change the password on an existing application, the password is written in clear text to the Component Load Balancing (CLB) registration database. The password should not be written. Passwords are stored in the secure section of the registry.

The password is written to the component catalog and the secure store by mistake, which allows anyone on the system to find out a COM+ application password.

The file permissions on the CLB registration files grant read-only permissions to everyone. All COM+ applications read from this database during startup. A preliminary scan of the source shows that the application identity password is read into memory when the application is started but this is incidental and the password is not used.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Windows 2000.

This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1.

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: