CWE-524: Use of Cache Containing Sensitive Information
Learn about CWE-524 (Use of Cache Containing Sensitive Information), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Use of Cache Containing Sensitive Information?
• Overview: CWE-524 refers to the security vulnerability where a cache, which stores sensitive information for efficiency, is improperly secured, allowing unauthorized actors to access the data. This can lead to exposure of sensitive information such as passwords, financial data, or personal user data.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by gaining unauthorized read access to the cache through weaknesses in access controls or security configurations.
- Common attack patterns include intercepting cache data during transmission, exploiting weak default permissions on cache storage, or injecting malicious code to extract data from the cache.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences include unauthorized access to sensitive information, leading to data breaches and potential identity theft.
- Potential cascading effects might involve further exploitation of accessed data to compromise additional systems or users.
- Business impact includes loss of customer trust, legal consequences due to data protection regulations, and financial losses from remediation and reputational damage.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes include implementing strict access controls and encryption for cache data, ensuring that only authorized processes can read from or write to the cache.
- Security best practices involve auditing cache configurations, using secure protocols for data transmission, and regularly clearing sensitive data from caches when no longer needed.
- Recommended tools and frameworks include using secure libraries or frameworks that offer built-in cache security features, and employing monitoring tools to detect and respond to unauthorized cache access attempts.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified