CWE-497: Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere

What is Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere?

• Overview: This vulnerability occurs when software unintentionally exposes sensitive system-level information to unauthorized users. This information can include details about the operating system, file paths, and installed software. When such information is leaked, it can be exploited by attackers to gain insights into the system and tailor attacks to known vulnerabilities.

• Exploitation Methods:

• Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by triggering errors or exceptions that reveal diagnostic information.
• Common attack patterns include inducing application errors to access stack traces or debugging logs that contain sensitive system details.

• Security Impact:

• Direct consequences of successful exploitation include unauthorized access to system configuration details and potential exposure of user data.
• Potential cascading effects involve attackers using leaked information to identify and exploit other vulnerabilities within the system.
• Business impact can be significant, leading to data breaches, loss of customer trust, and legal ramifications.

• Prevention Guidelines:

• Specific code-level fixes include removing or masking sensitive information in error messages and logs.
• Security best practices involve implementing proper error handling and ensuring that system information is not exposed to unauthorized users.
• Recommended tools and frameworks include using logging libraries that support secure logging practices and employing application security testing tools to identify and mitigate information exposure risks.

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Technical Details

Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified

Affected Languages: Not Language-Specific

Affected Technologies: Not specified

Vulnerable Code Example

def load_config():
    # Loading configuration from a file
    try:
        with open("config.txt", "r") as file:
            # Vulnerable: Exposing sensitive system information in an error message
            # The file may contain sensitive data like passwords or API keys
            return file.read()
    except Exception as e:
        # Vulnerability: Exposing the raw exception message, which might include sensitive information
        print(f"Error loading configuration: {e}")  # Exposes internal error details

How to fix Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere?

The vulnerability arises from exposing sensitive system information via exception messages. The error message may unintentionally include sensitive data that should not be visible to unauthorized users. To address this, it is crucial to sanitize error messages and ensure no sensitive information is logged or displayed. Instead, display a generic error message to the user and handle detailed error logging securely.

Best Practices for Fixing:

1. Sanitize Error Messages: Avoid displaying sensitive information in error messages. Use generic messages for user-facing outputs.
2. Secure Logging: Log detailed error information in a secure location accessible only to authorized personnel.
3. Exception Handling: Use specific exception handling to manage different error types without exposing details.

Fixed Code Example

import logging

# Configure logging to write to a secure file
logging.basicConfig(filename='app.log', level=logging.ERROR)

def load_config():
    # Loading configuration from a file
    try:
        with open("config.txt", "r") as file:
            return file.read()
    except FileNotFoundError:
        # Specific error handling for file not found
        print("Configuration file not found. Please check the file path.")
    except Exception as e:
        # Secure: Log the detailed error message for internal use only
        logging.error(f"An error occurred while loading configuration: {e}")
        print("An error occurred while loading the configuration. Please contact support.")

In the fixed code, we use Python's logging module to securely log detailed error information instead of exposing it to the user. The user-facing message is kept generic to ensure that sensitive data is not inadvertently disclosed. Additionally, specific exceptions like FileNotFoundError are handled to provide more precise and helpful feedback to the user. This approach adheres to best practices for secure error handling in Python.