Network-based products, such as web applications, often run on top of an operating system or similar environment. When the product communicates with outside parties, details about the underlying system are expected to remain hidden, such as path names for data files, other OS users, installed packages, the application environment, etc. This system information may be provided by the product itself, or buried within diagnostic or debugging messages. Debugging information helps an adversary learn about the system and form an attack plan.
An information exposure occurs when system data or debugging information leaves the program through an output stream or logging function that makes it accessible to unauthorized parties. Using other weaknesses, an attacker could cause errors to occur; the response to these errors can reveal detailed system information, along with other impacts. An attacker can use messages that reveal technologies, operating systems, and product versions to tune the attack against known vulnerabilities in these technologies. A product may use diagnostic methods that provide significant implementation details such as stack traces as part of its error handling mechanism.
Scope | Impact | Likelihood |
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Confidentiality | Read Application Data |
References | Description |
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CVE-2021-32638 | Code analysis product passes access tokens as a command-line parameter or through an environment variable, making them visible to other processes via the ps command. |
CAPEC-ID | Attack Pattern Name |
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CAPEC-170 | Web Application Fingerprinting An attacker sends a series of probes to a web application in order to elicit version-dependent and type-dependent behavior that assists in identifying the target. An attacker could learn information such as software versions, error pages, and response headers, variations in implementations of the HTTP protocol, directory structures, and other similar information about the targeted service. This information can then be used by an attacker to formulate a targeted attack plan. While web application fingerprinting is not intended to be damaging (although certain activities, such as network scans, can sometimes cause disruptions to vulnerable applications inadvertently) it may often pave the way for more damaging attacks. |
CAPEC-694 | System Location Discovery An adversary collects information about the target system in an attempt to identify the system's geographical location. Information gathered could include keyboard layout, system language, and timezone. This information may benefit an adversary in confirming the desired target and/or tailoring further attacks. |
Name | Organization | Date | Date release | Version |
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7 Pernicious Kingdoms | Draft 3 |
Name | Organization | Date | Comment |
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Eric Dalci | Cigital | updated Time_of_Introduction | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings, Type | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Demonstrative_Examples | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Demonstrative_Examples | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Demonstrative_Examples | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Description, Other_Notes | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Description, Name | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Potential_Mitigations | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Related_Attack_Patterns | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Applicable_Platforms, Taxonomy_Mappings | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Taxonomy_Mappings | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Related_Attack_Patterns | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Description, Name, References, Relationships, Type | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Demonstrative_Examples | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Relationships | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Related_Attack_Patterns | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Description, Relationships | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Detection_Factors, Relationships | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Mapping_Notes | |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | updated Observed_Examples |