CWE-1295: Debug Messages Revealing Unnecessary Information

MITRE CWE weakness

Description

The product fails to adequately prevent the revealing of unnecessary and potentially sensitive system information within debugging messages.

Debug messages are messages that help troubleshoot an issue by revealing the internal state of the system. For example, debug data in design can be exposed through internal memory array dumps or boot logs through interfaces like UART via TAP commands, scan chain, etc. Thus, the more information contained in a debug message, the easier it is to debug. However, there is also the risk of revealing information that could help an attacker either decipher a vulnerability, and/or gain a better understanding of the system. Thus, this extra information could lower the "security by obscurity" factor. While "security by obscurity" alone is insufficient, it can help as a part of "Defense-in-depth".

Common consequences

• Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control, Accountability, Authentication, Authorization, Non-Repudiation: Read Memory, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Varies by Context

Mitigations

Implementation — Ensure that a debug message does not reveal any unnecessary information during the debug process for the intended response.

References

• CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1295.html
• CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html