[libreoffice-users] FYI: LO's security system is compromised, please be careful

It turned out that LibreOffice has a security-related issue (
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51819), that makes it save the
AutoRecovery files for password-protected documents without any protection
(encryption).

It essentially means, that with AutoRecovery enabled (which is the default):
- after an application or system crash (eg. a power failure) anybody can
recover the document without knowing the password (the document 'loses' its
password)
- anybody who has access to the system drive (eg. through the network)
while you are editing a document can open it without knowing the password
- anybody who has physical access to your system hard drive, now or in the
future (at worst even months/years after the actual editing), has the
chance to unerase the document and open it without knowing the password

If you use password-protection a lot and are concerned about the security
of your documents, it could be advisable to switch the AutoRecovery feature
off until the bug gets fixed.

The issue applies to all LibreOffice modules (Writer, Calc, Draw, ...) and
was introduced in version 3.4.6 (March 2012).

------------------
For developers only:

It also turned out, that (a bit surprisingly) the lead developers have
other priorities than fixing such security issues, and are waiting (since
May 2013) for the community to step in.

If you have the necessary knowledge and free time to track down and
potentially to fix this issue, please do not hesitate to take a look into
it and help in maintaining the security standard that millions of users
worldwide impose on such professional products as LibreOffice.

Thank you!

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