Chris Jones discovered that the eCryptfs support utilities would report the mount passphrase into installation logs when an eCryptfs home directory was selected during Ubuntu installation. The logs are only readable by the root user, but this still left the mount passphrase unencrypted on disk, potentially leading to a loss of privacy.
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
8 June 2009
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
Chris Jones discovered that the eCryptfs support utilities would report the mount passphrase into installation logs when an eCryptfs home directory was selected during Ubuntu installation. The logs are only readable by the root user, but this still left the mount passphrase unencrypted on disk, potentially leading to a loss of privacy.
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.
Vulmon