Pathways Homecare 6.5 uses weak encryption for user names and passwords, which allows local users to gain privileges by recovering the pass…

published 2001-12-31 24 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2001-1523

cvss: 7.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.4%; EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 35%
public exploits: 1; Exploit-DB

Pathways Homecare 6.5 uses weak encryption for user names and passwords, which allows local users to gain privileges by recovering the passwords from the pwhc.ini file.

Timeline

2001-12-07 First public exploit (EDB-21173)
2001-12-31 Published

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 21 mo ago (2025-01-16)

Exploit prediction

0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

EDB-21173 McKesson Pathways Homecare 6.5 - Weak 'Username' and Password Encryption local, 2001-12-07
securityfocus.com http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/3653 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CISA ADP	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	4.6	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

CWE-326 Inadequate Encryption Strength

References

securityfocus.com /bid/3653
vdb-entry, broken-link, exploit, third-party-advisory
iss.net /security_center/static/7682.php
vdb-entry, broken-link
securityfocus.com /archive/1/244367
mailing-list, broken-link, third-party-advisory, vdb-entry

Sources

CVE List CVE-2001-1546
NVD CVE-2001-1546

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary