COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONDraft

CWE-620

Unverified Password Change

When setting a new password for a user, the product does not require knowledge of the original password, or using another form of authentication.

Abstraction

Base

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

When setting a new password for a user, the product does not require knowledge of the original password, or using another form of authentication.

Extended description

This could be used by an attacker to change passwords for another user, thus gaining the privileges associated with that user.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Architecture and Design

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 Identity

Affected security scopes: Access Control

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

Architecture and Design

Architecture and design approach

Detail
When prompting for a password change, force the user to provide the original password in addition to the new password.

Architecture and Design

Architecture and design approach

Detail
Do not use "forgotten password" functionality. But if you must, ensure that you are only providing information to the actual user, e.g. by using an email address or challenge question that the legitimate user already provided in the past; do not allow the current user to change this identity information until the correct password has been provided.