COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONIncomplete

CWE-922

Insecure Storage of Sensitive Information

The product stores sensitive information without properly limiting read or write access by unauthorized actors.

Abstraction

Class

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

The product stores sensitive information without properly limiting read or write access by unauthorized actors.

Extended description

If read access is not properly restricted, then attackers can steal the sensitive information. If write access is not properly restricted, then attackers can modify and possibly delete the data, causing incorrect results and possibly a denial of service.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Architecture and Design

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

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

Lifecycle phase

System Configuration

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Read Application DataRead Files or Directories

Affected security scopes: Confidentiality

Attackers can read sensitive information by accessing the unrestricted storage mechanism.
Modify Application DataModify Files or Directories

Affected security scopes: Integrity

Attackers can overwrite sensitive information by accessing the unrestricted storage mechanism.

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.)