COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONDraft

CWE-304

Missing Critical Step in Authentication

The product implements an authentication technique, but it skips a step that weakens the technique.

Abstraction

Base

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

The product implements an authentication technique, but it skips a step that weakens the technique.

Extended description

Authentication techniques should follow the algorithms that define them exactly, otherwise authentication can be bypassed or more easily subjected to brute force attacks.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Bypass Protection MechanismGain Privileges or Assume IdentityRead Application DataExecute Unauthorized Code or Commands

Affected security scopes: Access Control, Integrity, Confidentiality

This weakness can lead to the exposure of resources or functionality to unintended actors, possibly providing attackers with sensitive information or allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code.

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

  • Follow secure coding guidelines for input handling and boundary checking.
  • Enforce strict security reviews and automated static analysis (SAST) checks.

Verification

How is it detected?

Automated Static Analysis

High
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.)