CWE-544: Missing Standardized Error Handling Mechanism
Learn about CWE-544 (Missing Standardized Error Handling Mechanism), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Missing Standardized Error Handling Mechanism?
• Overview: Missing Standardized Error Handling Mechanism (CWE-544) occurs when a software product lacks a consistent approach for managing errors across its codebase. This inconsistency can lead to vulnerabilities by losing error context or inadvertently exposing sensitive information through error messages.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers can exploit inconsistent error handling to glean information about the system's internal workings.
- Common attack patterns include triggering errors intentionally to observe varied responses and identifying discrepancies in error messages to gather system information.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences of successful exploitation include exposure of sensitive system details and potential guidance for further attacks.
- Potential cascading effects include increased risk of other vulnerabilities being exploited due to revealed system details.
- Business impact includes loss of customer trust, potential data breaches, and compliance violations.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes include implementing a centralized error handling mechanism that captures and manages errors uniformly.
- Security best practices involve standardizing error messages to avoid leakage of sensitive information and ensuring consistent logging.
- Recommended tools and frameworks include using exception handling libraries and frameworks that provide standardized error management features.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified