Microsoft backtracks on Edge storing your passwords in plaintext RAM
Microsoft has reversed its stance on the security of passwords stored in Edge, which were previously kept in plaintext in memory. This vulnerability was highlighted by a security researcher, prompting Microsoft to issue a fix in Edge version 148. Users are now advised to switch to dedicated password managers for enhanced security.
- ▪Microsoft Edge was found to store user passwords in unencrypted plaintext in computer memory.
- ▪The vulnerability was initially defended by Microsoft as a deliberate design decision.
- ▪Microsoft has since fixed the issue in Edge version 148 and recommends using dedicated password managers.
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Story provenance
Attribution is not the same as permission. This drawer separates discovery metadata, excerpts, WeSearch-generated summaries, reuse status, and whether the publisher receives the visit. Nothing here claims a legal grant the publisher has not made.
Record
| Original publisher | PCWorld |
| Canonical URL | https://www.pcworld.com/article/3131805/microsoft-backtracks-on-edge-storing-your-passwords-in-plaintext-ram.html |
| Publication time | Mon, 18 May 2026 14:33:24 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-18T14:34:56.634Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-18T14:34:56.634Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | IPDROdNQg-TC · 2 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Updated Microsoft backtracks on Edge storing your passwords in plaintext RAM When a security researcher showed that Edge passwords are plaintext readable, Microsoft initially said the behavior was intentional. By Laura Pippig Staff Writer, PC-WELT May 18, 2026 7:33 am PDT Image: Smile Studio AP / Shutterstock.com Summary created by Smart Answers AIIn summary:Microsoft Edge previously stored user passwords in unencrypted plaintext in computer memory, creating a significant security vulnerability that allowed local attackers to easily access saved credentials.Security researcher Tom Jøran Sønstebyseter Rønning exposed this flaw, which Microsoft initially defended as a deliberate design decision before reversing course.PCWorld reports that Microsoft has fixed this issue in Edge version 148…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at PCWorld.
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