CVE-2006-5161
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIBM Client Security Password Manager stores and distributes saved passwords based upon the title of a website, which allows remote attackers to obtain username and password credentials by changing the title of an HTML page.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceIBM Client Security Password Manager stores saved credentials indexed by the HTML title of websites rather than by the actual domain/URL. This allows a remote attacker hosting a malicious page with a title matching a legitimate saved site to trick the password manager into auto-filling and exposing credentials intended for the legitimate site.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Verify IBM Client Security Password Manager is installedCheck for the presence of the IBM Client Security Password Manager executable or service on the system. Common paths include Program Files\IBM\IBM Client Security\ or check Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\IBM\Client Security\Password Manager.Affected if The product is installed on the system.
-
Confirm saved credentials existOpen IBM Client Security Password Manager and check if any website credentials have been saved. Look for any stored password entries in the password manager's credential store.Affected if There are saved website credentials in the password manager.
-
Verify credential storage uses title-based indexingExamine the credential storage database or files used by IBM Client Security Password Manager. Look for entries that index passwords by website title rather than by domain or URL. Check the underlying data structure for how passwords are associated with sites.Affected if Credentials are indexed by HTML page title rather than by domain/URL.
-
Check if auto-fill is enabledReview the password manager settings to determine if automatic credential filling is enabled. This feature must be active for the vulnerability to be exploitable.Affected if Auto-fill functionality is enabled and active.
A user is affected if IBM Client Security Password Manager is installed, contains saved credentials, and uses title-based storage indexing rather than domain/URL-based storage.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataReplace title-based password storage with domain/URL-based storage; implement origin validation before auto-filling credentials; consider adding user confirmation for credential autofill.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,960.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-5161 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2006-5161 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data