Plaintext Storage of a Password

Opis

The product stores a password in plaintext within resources such as memory or files.

Skutki

• Access Control

  Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

  Storing a plaintext password in a configuration file allows anyone who can read the file to access the password-protected resource. In some contexts, even storage of a plaintext password in memory is considered a security risk if the password is not cleared immediately after it is used.

Zapobieganie

• Architecture and Design

  Avoid storing passwords in easily accessible locations.

• Architecture and Design

  Consider storing cryptographic hashes of passwords as an alternative to storing in plaintext.

• A programmer might attempt to remedy the password management problem by obscuring the password with an encoding function, such as base 64 encoding, but this effort does not adequately protect the password because the encoding can be detected and decoded easily.

  Skuteczność: None

Przykłady podatności

• CVE-2022-30275 Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) uses a driver that relies on a password stored in plaintext.

Słabość nadrzędna

• CWE-522 Insufficiently Protected Credentials

Kiedy powstaje

• Architecture and Design — OMISSION: This weakness is caused by missing a security tactic during the architecture and design phase.
• Architecture and Design — Developers sometimes believe that they cannot defend the application from someone who has access to the configuration, but this belief makes an attacker's job easier.

Dotyczy

Not Language-Specific, ICS/OT

Źródła

1. Seven Pernicious Kingdoms: A Taxonomy of Software Security Errors — Katrina Tsipenyuk, Brian Chess, Gary McGraw, NIST, 2005
2. Building Secure Software: How to Avoid Security Problems the Right Way — John Viega, Gary McGraw, Addison-Wesley, 2002
3. OT:ICEFALL: The legacy of "insecure by design" and its implications for certifications and risk management — Forescout Vedere Labs, 2022