CWE-523 Detail

CWE-523

Name

Unprotected Transport of Credentials

Status

Incomplete

Published

2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00

Modified

2023-06-29
00h00 +00:00

Official links

CWE Mitre.org

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Name: Unprotected Transport of Credentials

Login pages do not use adequate measures to protect the user name and password while they are in transit from the client to the server.

General Informations

Background Details

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) provides data confidentiality and integrity to HTTP. By encrypting HTTP messages, SSL protects from attackers eavesdropping or altering message contents.

Modes Of Introduction

Architecture and Design : OMISSION: This weakness is caused by missing a security tactic during the architecture and design phase.

Common Consequences

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Access Control	Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Operation // System Configuration
Enforce SSL use for the login page or any page used to transmit user credentials or other sensitive information. Even if the entire site does not use SSL, it MUST use SSL for login. Additionally, to help prevent phishing attacks, make sure that SSL serves the login page. SSL allows the user to verify the identity of the server to which they are connecting. If the SSL serves login page, the user can be certain they are talking to the proper end system. A phishing attack would typically redirect a user to a site that does not have a valid trusted server certificate issued from an authorized supplier.

Detection Methods

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
Effectiveness : High

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comment : Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID	Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-102	Session Sidejacking Session sidejacking takes advantage of an unencrypted communication channel between a victim and target system. The attacker sniffs traffic on a network looking for session tokens in unencrypted traffic. Once a session token is captured, the attacker performs malicious actions by using the stolen token with the targeted application to impersonate the victim. This attack is a specific method of session hijacking, which is exploiting a valid session token to gain unauthorized access to a target system or information. Other methods to perform a session hijacking are session fixation, cross-site scripting, or compromising a user or server machine and stealing the session token.

Submission

Name	Organization	Date	Date release	Version
Anonymous Tool Vendor (under NDA)		2006-07-19 +00:00	2006-07-19 +00:00	Draft 3

Modifications

Name	Organization	Date	Comment
Eric Dalci	Cigital	2008-07-01 +00:00	updated Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2008-09-08 +00:00	updated Background_Details, Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2009-05-27 +00:00	updated Related_Attack_Patterns
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2011-06-01 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-05-11 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-10-30 +00:00	updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2014-06-23 +00:00	updated Other_Notes, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2014-07-30 +00:00	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2017-11-08 +00:00	updated Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2018-03-27 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2020-02-24 +00:00	updated Description, Relationships, Type
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2021-10-28 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-04-27 +00:00	updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-06-29 +00:00	updated Mapping_Notes