CWE-256

Base Abstraction Level
Pillar — Highest-level weakness category
Class — Abstract, language-independent
Base — Specific enough to detect
Variant — Tied to specific technology
Compound — Requires multiple weaknesses Incomplete MITRE CWE Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development, may change
Incomplete — Partially defined by MITRE
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CWE Exploit: High
Plaintext Storage of a Password

Description

The product stores a password in plaintext within resources such as memory or files.

Top Monitored CVEs

CVE-2024-26165
HIGH
8.8 1.9%
2024-03-12

Consequences

Access Control — Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Storing a plaintext password in a configuration file allows anyone who can read the file to access the password-protected resource. In some contexts, even storage of a plaintext password in memory is considered a security risk if the password is not cleared immediately after it is used.

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

Avoid storing passwords in easily accessible locations.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Consider storing cryptographic hashes of passwords as an alternative to storing in plaintext.

Phase:

A programmer might attempt to remedy the password management problem by obscuring the password with an encoding function, such as base 64 encoding, but this effort does not adequately protect the password because the encoding can be detected and decoded easily.

Detection

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)