CWE-209: Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

MITRE CWE weakness

Description

The product generates an error message that includes sensitive information about its environment, users, or associated data.

Common consequences

• Confidentiality: Read Application Data

Mitigations

Implementation — Ensure that error messages only contain minimal details that are useful to the intended audience and no one else. The messages need to strike the balance between being too cryptic (which can confuse users) or being too detailed (which may reveal more than intended). The messages should not reveal the methods that were used to determine the error. Attackers can use detailed information to refine or optimize their original attack, thereby increasing their chances of success. If errors must be captured in some detail, record them in log messages, but consider what could occur if the log messages can be viewed by attackers. Highly sensitive information such as passwords should never be saved to log files. Avoid inconsistent messaging that might accidentally tip off an attacker about internal state, such as whether a user account exists or not.

Implementation — Handle exceptions internally and do not display errors containing potentially sensitive information to a user.

Implementation — Use naming conventions and strong types to make it easier to spot when sensitive data is being used. When creating structures, objects, or other complex entities, separate the sensitive and non-sensitive data as much as possible.

Implementation — Debugging information should not make its way into a production release.

Implementation — Debugging information should not make its way into a production release.

References

• CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/209.html
• CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html