CWE-522

Class 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
Insufficiently Protected Credentials

Description

The product transmits or stores authentication credentials, but it uses an insecure method that is susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval.

Top Monitored CVEs

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CVE-2024-9014
MEDIUM
6.5 9.7%
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CVE-2021-42306
HIGH
8.1 3.1%
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CVE-2021-30167
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9.8 2.4%
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CVE-2023-30846
HIGH
7.5 2.2%
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Consequences

Access Control — Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

An attacker could gain access to user accounts and access sensitive data used by the user accounts.

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

Use an appropriate security mechanism to protect the credentials.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Make appropriate use of cryptography to protect the credentials.

Phase: Implementation

Use industry standards to protect the credentials (e.g. LDAP, keystore, etc.).

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.)