CWE-1270: Generation of Incorrect Security Tokens

What is Generation of Incorrect Security Tokens?

• Overview: The CWE-1270 vulnerability involves generating incorrect security tokens in systems, especially in Systems-On-a-Chip (SoC), which leads to improper differentiation of actions permitted for various agents. This can result in security tokens being incorrectly assigned, allowing unauthorized actions like privilege escalation or unintended access.

• Exploitation Methods:

• Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by intercepting or manipulating the incorrect tokens to perform unauthorized actions.
• Common attack patterns include reusing tokens from one agent for another or modifying tokens to escalate privileges.

• Security Impact:

• Direct consequences include unauthorized access to restricted actions or data and possible privilege escalation.
• Potential cascading effects may involve system instability, data breaches, and Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks.
• Business impact could be severe, including loss of data integrity, legal liabilities, and damage to reputation.

• Prevention Guidelines:

• Specific code-level fixes include rigorous validation of token generation processes and ensuring unique token assignment per agent.
• Security best practices involve implementing robust token management systems, regular audits, and testing for token consistency.
• Recommended tools and frameworks include using established libraries for token generation and management, and adopting security-focused development tools that can identify token-related vulnerabilities.

Corgea can automatically detect and fix Generation of Incorrect Security Tokens in your codebase. [Try Corgea free today](https://corgea.app).

Technical Details

Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified

Affected Languages: Not Language-Specific

Affected Technologies: Not Technology-Specific

Vulnerable Code Example

```javascript auth.js {5-8}
function generateToken(userId) {
    // Vulnerable: Using Math.random() which is not secure for token generation
    // Math.random() is not suitable for cryptographic purposes
    const token = userId + Math.random().toString(36).substring(2);
    return token;
}

const userId = 'user123';
const token = generateToken(userId);
console.log(`Generated Token: \${token}`);

How to fix Generation of Incorrect Security Tokens?

The JavaScript code above uses Math.random() for token generation, which is not cryptographically secure. Tokens generated in this manner can be predicted by attackers, leading to security vulnerabilities. Predictable tokens can be exploited to impersonate users or gain unauthorized access to systems.

To fix this issue, use the crypto module available in Node.js, which provides a method crypto.randomBytes() to generate cryptographically secure random data. The crypto.randomBytes() function can be used to generate secure random bytes, which can then be converted into a hexadecimal string suitable for token use.

Fixed Code Example

const crypto = require('crypto');

function generateSecureToken(userId) {
    // Fixed: Using crypto.randomBytes() for cryptographically secure tokens
    // crypto.randomBytes() generates secure random bytes, ensuring tokens are unpredictable
    const randomBytes = crypto.randomBytes(16).toString('hex');
    const token = userId + randomBytes;
    return token;
}

const userId = 'user123';
const token = generateSecureToken(userId);
console.log(`Generated Secure Token: \${token}`);

In both examples, the key fix involves replacing non-secure random number generators with cryptographically secure alternatives (crypto in Node.js) to generate tokens that are unpredictable and secure against attacks. This ensures that the tokens cannot be easily guessed or reproduced by attackers, thereby enhancing the security of the application.