Netscape browser saves forms and emails in the clear.
6 Nov. 1998
Summary
Netscape Navigator 3.x and Communicator 4.x (Windows Systems) seems to be unable to delete some temporary files it creates whenever it crashes, this includes emails and forms filled by users. These files might contain sensetive information such as usernames and passwords.
Netscape browser saves temporarily some of the emails and forms in the form of clear text, usually in the TEMP (as configured by the enviromental settings) directory, for processing, but when the Netscape browser crashes, it seems to be unable to delete those temporary files (usually called 'ns*.tmp') and they are left in the directory for anyone to see (on UNIX system, they are bound by a set of permissions, that might make it impossible for other users to read those files).
It is reported that also forms that are configured to use MIME-Encoded technology also create files under the TEMP directory usually named 'nstemp*.tmp', which aren't deleted by the browser. Altought the content of these files is "encoded" it can be easily "unencoded" to reveal the content of the form.
