CWE - CWE-1275: Sensitive Cookie with Improper SameSite Attribute (4.4)

Weakness ID: 1275

Abstraction: Variant
Structure: Simple

Status: Incomplete

Presentation Filter:

Description

The SameSite attribute for sensitive cookies is not set, or an insecure value is used.

Extended Description

The SameSite attribute controls how cookies are sent for cross-domain requests. This attribute may have three values: 'Lax', 'Strict', or 'None'. If the 'None' value is used, a website may create a cross-domain POST HTTP request to another website, and the browser automatically adds cookies to this request. This may lead to Cross-Site-Request-Forgery (CSRF) attacks if there are no additional protections in place (such as Anti-CSRF tokens).

Relationships

The table(s) below shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (CWE-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Pillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things.	284	Improper Access Control
CanPrecede	Composite - a Compound Element that consists of two or more distinct weaknesses, in which all weaknesses must be present at the same time in order for a potential vulnerability to arise. Removing any of the weaknesses eliminates or sharply reduces the risk. One weakness, X, can be "broken down" into component weaknesses Y and Z. There can be cases in which one weakness might not be essential to a composite, but changes the nature of the composite when it becomes a vulnerability.	352	Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Modes Of Introduction

The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Implementation	This weakness occurs during implementation when the coder does not properly set the SameSite attribute.

Applicable Platforms

The listings below show possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages

Class: Language-Independent (Undetermined Prevalence)

Operating Systems

Class: OS-Independent (Undetermined Prevalence)

Architectures

Class: Architecture-Independent (Undetermined Prevalence)

Technologies

Class: Web Based (Undetermined Prevalence)

Common Consequences

The table below specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Confidentiality Integrity Non-Repudiation Access Control	Technical Impact: Modify Application Data If the website does not impose additional defense against CSRF attacks, failing to use the 'Lax' or 'Strict' values could increase the risk of exposure to CSRF attacks. The likelihood of the integrity breach is Low because a successful attack does not only depend on an insecure SameSite attribute. In order to perform a CSRF attack there are many conditions that must be met, such as the lack of CSRF tokens, no confirmations for sensitive actions on the website, a "simple" "Content-Type" header in the HTTP request and many more.	Low

Likelihood Of Exploit

Medium

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

In this example, a cookie is used to store a session ID for a client's interaction with a website. The snippet of code below establishes a new cookie to hold the sessionID.

(bad code)

Example Language: JavaScript

let sessionId = generateSessionId()
let cookieOptions = { domain: 'example.com' }
response.cookie('sessionid', sessionId, cookieOptions)

Since the sameSite attribute is not specified, the cookie will be sent to the website with each request made by the client. An attacker who can potentially perform CSRF attack by using the following malicious page:

(attack code)

Example Language: HTML

<html>

<form id=evil action="http://local:3002/setEmail" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="newEmail" value="abc@example.com" />
</form>
<script>evil.submit()</script>
</html>

When the client visits this malicious web page, it submits a '/setEmail' POST HTTP request to the vulnerable website. Since the browser automatically appends the 'sessionid' cookie to the request, the website automatically performs a 'setEmail' action on behalf of the client.

To mitigate the risk, use the sameSite attribute of the 'sessionid' cookie set to 'Strict'.

(good code)

Example Language: JavaScript

let sessionId = generateSessionId()
let cookieOptions = { domain: 'example.com', sameSite: 'Strict' }
response.cookie('sessionid', sessionId, cookieOptions

Potential Mitigations

Phase: Implementation

Set the SameSite attribute of a sensitive cookie to 'Lax' or 'Strict'. This instructs the browser to apply this cookie only to same-domain requests, which provides a good Defense in Depth against CSRF attacks. When the 'Lax' value is in use, cookies are also sent for top-level cross-domain navigation via HTTP GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, and TRACE methods, but not for other HTTP methods that are more like to cause side-effects of state mutation.

Effectiveness: High

Note: While this mitigation is effective for protecting cookies from a browser's own scripting engine, third-party components or plugins may have their own engines that allow access to cookies. Attackers might also be able to use XMLHTTPResponse to read the headers directly and obtain the cookie.

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID	Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-62	Cross Site Request Forgery

References

[REF-1104] M. West and M. Goodwin. "SameSite attribute specification draft". 2016-04-06. <https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-west-first-party-cookies-07>.

[REF-1105] Mozilla. "SameSite attribute description on MDN Web Docs". 2020-06-20. <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Set-Cookie/SameSite>.

[REF-1106] The Chromium Projects. "Chromium support for SameSite attribute". 2019-09-26. <https://www.chromium.org/updates/same-site>.

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2020-06-19	Michael Stepankin	Veracode
2020-06-19
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2020-08-20	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020-08-20	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Related_Attack_Patterns


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Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-1275: Sensitive Cookie with Improper SameSite Attribute