GNU bug report logs - #76808
30.0.5; auth-source-search with auth-source-pass remembers wrong password

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From: Al Haji-Ali <abdo.haji.ali <at> gmail.com>
To: 76808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#76808: 30.0.5; auth-source-search with auth-source-pass remembers wrong password
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:34:19 +0000

I ran into an issue where auth-source-search returns (and remembers) the wrong password, when combined with 'auth-source-pass'.

Here's the full situation:
- In my password store, I have two passwords:

user <at> website.com
website.com

- I start from a clean state, where I have to enter my password, e.g., by running:

gpgconf --reload gpg-agent

- From emacs, I call

(auth-source-search :host "website.com" :user "user" :max 1)

wanting to access the password in "user <at> website.com"

- I am promoted for a passkey, which I input incorrectly.
- I am then prompted for the passkey a second time, which I input correctly.
- The returned password is that in "website.com" rather than "user <at> website.com"
- Moreover, subsequent calls to `auth-source-search` return the "wrong" password when `auth-source-do-cache` is non-nil.  


This is not a bug per se, since I know what happens is that:
`auth-source-search`
calls
`auth-source-search-backends`
which calls
`auth-source-pass-search`
which builds a possible list of matches including "user <at> website.com" and "website.com" that it tests one by one, returning the first match after successful decoding. When I input the wrong password the first time while decoding the correct "user <at> website.com", then the first success happens in the second instance when decoding "website.com".

However, I am wondering if there's a way to detect wrong passkey entries and abort further matching. Or if this is something that should be patched somehow since I was experiencing persistent authentication issues in not-uncommon situations, and which took me quite a while to track down.

Thanks,
-- Al

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