CWE - CWE-565: Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking (4.4)

Weakness ID: 565

Abstraction: Base
Structure: Simple

Status: Incomplete

Presentation Filter:

Description

The application relies on the existence or values of cookies when performing security-critical operations, but it does not properly ensure that the setting is valid for the associated user.

Extended Description

Attackers can easily modify cookies, within the browser or by implementing the client-side code outside of the browser. Reliance on cookies without detailed validation and integrity checking can allow attackers to bypass authentication, conduct injection attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, or otherwise modify inputs in unexpected ways.

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	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	602	Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	642	External Control of Critical State Data
ParentOf	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	784	Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking in a Security Decision

Relevant to the view "Software Development" (CWE-699)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1214	Data Integrity Issues

Relevant to the view "Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published Vulnerabilities" (CWE-1003)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	669	Incorrect Resource Transfer Between Spheres

Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (CWE-1008)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1020	Verify Message Integrity

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
Architecture and Design	OMISSION: This weakness is caused by missing a security tactic during the architecture and design phase.
Implementation

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
Access Control	Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity It is dangerous to use cookies to set a user's privileges. The cookie can be manipulated to escalate an attacker's privileges to an administrative level.

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

The following code excerpt reads a value from a browser cookie to determine the role of the user.

(bad code)

Example Language: Java

Cookie[] cookies = request.getCookies();
for (int i =0; i< cookies.length; i++) {

Cookie c = cookies[i];
if (c.getName().equals("role")) {

userRole = c.getValue();

}

It is easy for an attacker to modify the "role" value found in the locally stored cookie, allowing privilege escalation.

Potential Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

Avoid using cookie data for a security-related decision.

Phase: Implementation

Perform thorough input validation (i.e.: server side validation) on the cookie data if you're going to use it for a security related decision.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Add integrity checks to detect tampering.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Protect critical cookies from replay attacks, since cross-site scripting or other attacks may allow attackers to steal a strongly-encrypted cookie that also passes integrity checks. This mitigation applies to cookies that should only be valid during a single transaction or session. By enforcing timeouts, you may limit the scope of an attack. As part of your integrity check, use an unpredictable, server-side value that is not exposed to the client.

Memberships

This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	949	SFP Secondary Cluster: Faulty Endpoint Authentication

Notes

Relationship

This problem can be primary to many types of weaknesses in web applications. A developer may perform proper validation against URL parameters while assuming that attackers cannot modify cookies. As a result, the program might skip basic input validation to enable cross-site scripting, SQL injection, price tampering, and other attacks..

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
Software Fault Patterns	SFP29		Faulty endpoint authentication

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID	Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-226	Session Credential Falsification through Manipulation
CAPEC-31	Accessing/Intercepting/Modifying HTTP Cookies
CAPEC-39	Manipulating Opaque Client-based Data Tokens

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2006-07-19	Anonymous Tool Vendor (under NDA)
2006-07-19
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2008-07-01	Sean Eidemiller	Cigital
2008-07-01	added/updated demonstrative examples
2008-07-01	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008-07-01	updated Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008-09-08	updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
2009-01-12	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-01-12	updated Common_Consequences, Description, Other_Notes, Potential_Mitigations, Relationships
2009-07-16	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-07-16	Clarified name and description; broadened the definition to include any security-critical operation, not just security decisions, to allow for relationships with injection weaknesses.
2009-07-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-07-27	updated Description, Name, Potential_Mitigations, Relationship_Notes, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2009-10-29	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-10-29	updated Relationships
2011-06-01	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-01	updated Common_Consequences
2012-05-11	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-05-11	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
2014-07-30	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014-07-30	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2017-11-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-11-08	updated Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships
2019-06-20	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2019-06-20	updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
2020-02-24	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020-02-24	updated Relationships
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2008-04-11	Use of Cookies

2009-07-27	Use of Cookies in Security Decision


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Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-565: Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking