Microsoft Edge just stopped storing your passwords in plaintext - but you'll need the latest update
Microsoft Edge has stopped storing passwords in plaintext in memory, enhancing user security. This change is effective in Edge version 148 and later, following concerns raised by a security researcher. Users are encouraged to update their browser to benefit from this improved security feature.
- ▪Microsoft Edge will no longer store passwords in plaintext in RAM.
- ▪The change takes effect in Edge version 148 or later.
- ▪This decision was made in response to security concerns raised by a researcher.
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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 | ZDNet |
| Canonical URL | https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-edge-passwords-ram-plaintext/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 18 May 2026 14:52:00 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-18T14:54:56.609Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-18T14:54:56.609Z |
| 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
Tech Home Tech Security Microsoft Edge just stopped storing your passwords in plaintext - but you'll need the latest update Though Microsoft claimed that storing plaintext passwords in memory was by design, the company has changed the behavior to better protect your passwords. Written by Lance Whitney, ContributorContributor May 18, 2026 at 7:52 a.m. PT Lance Whitney/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET's key takeawaysMicrosoft Edge will no longer store your passwords in plaintext in RAM.The behavior occurred if you used the Edge browser as your password manager.The change takes effect in Edge version 148 or later.Do you use Microsoft Edge to save and manage your website passwords? If so, you should now feel safer that your passwords will be better protected…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at ZDNet.
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