Suggested edits retain redacted information

Question

I noticed while approving a redaction, that suggested edits may retain text which is later redacted.

With a bit of mod collusion with Community ♦ and another helpful moderator, I was able to reproduce the problem and provide screenshots without exposing legitimate credentials.

1. I asked an outstanding question, but accidentally left credentials in the post:

   

2. A helpful user who hasn't yet received editing privileges (including anonymous users) came around to fix the typo in my post and re-worded the question to make it more likely to receive a good answer.

3. I realized I left my credentials in the post, panicked, and raised a flag asking a moderator to redact the token.

4. Rob ♦ graciously redacted the token for me, what a great guy!

   

And indeed the token is not visible in the actual question either:

Everything worked out in the end! But, I've got a bad memory - so I went back to check exactly what that helpful user edited for me, and lo:

It looks like I was wrong - that helpful user wasn't so helpful! I guess I didn't forget to hide my credentials after all - someone got a hold of them and is trying to get me in trouble with my boss.

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This was mentioned here years ago (emphasis mine):

otherwise, your edit just blocks a more thorough editor and potentially leaves traces in the suggested edit history.

However, I haven't found any bug reports detailing this issue. Though it's a minor thing, it does break redactions quite badly, even though they're admittedly not a good way to fix credentials accidentally being exposed to the public.

Answer 1

We adjusted the redact functionality to also affect suggested edits. From now on, all redactions will also redact text in related suggested edit.

The redactions performed up to this date will not be affected. It is however possible to perform another redaction on the historical posts - and the new action will redact the suggested edit. Hope that helps!