I have just discovered what seems to be at first look a serious security 
problem with the latest Pages on Snow Leopard.  Or perhaps it is just my 
machine.

I have a pages document which is security protected with a Password.  Today, 
not having closed the machine the night before, I used the file but then closed 
it, as part of demonstrating to my partner how the security works!  However, 
when I re-opened it there was no screen requiring a Password!!!!  I fussed 
around for a while, then rebooted the machine and the same thing happened.  To 
the best of my memory today is the first time a Password has not been required.

I went into Inspector and sure enough on the Document menu the "Require 
password to open" box was ticked.  I went off to "Change password".  I entered 
the Old password which I store in my personal short term memory and then 
entered (twice of course) a new password - stored in the same place.  Now I 
rebooted my machine and sure enough when I opened the file it required a 
password, which I entered successfully.

However, when I again rebooted the machine the file opened without requiring a 
password.

It seems as if when I first open the file using the correct current password 
that password is then stored somewhere which survives the file being closed or 
the machine being rebooted.  When I change the password that new password 
doesn't go into whatever memory is being used until it is used to open the file.

I'm fairly sure that this is the first time I have observed this behaviour.  I 
often close down the machine at night, but not always.  I didn't last night, 
but I did the night before and therefore would have had to open the file 
yesterday morning.  I don't remember what happened when I opened it, but I 
assume I would have noticed if the password wasn't required.

Can anybody shed light on this anomalous behaviour?  It's an important file 
which I want to keep protected.  Have I somehow allowed someone out there 
access to my iMac to plant some kind of Trojan?  I could start a rather tedious 
procedure where I always change the password before I close the file.  Any 
suggestions?


David Nicholas

Pages 09 4.1

iMac OS X  10.6.8

iTunes 10.4

David Nicholas
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