Weakness · Medium

CWE-219: Storage of File with Sensitive Data Under Web Root

What it is

The product stores sensitive data under the web document root with insufficient access control, which might make it accessible to untrusted parties.

MITRE CWE 4.19.1

Severity (our rating)
Medium
Likelihood of exploit
Not rated by MITRE
Introduced during
Implementation, Operation
Exploited in the wild
No CVE in CISA's catalog

In more detail

Besides public-facing web pages and code, products may store sensitive data, code that is not directly invoked, or other files under the web document root of the web server. If the server is not configured or otherwise used to prevent direct access to those files, then attackers may obtain this sensitive data.

What an attacker can do

  • Read Application Data (Confidentiality)

How to prevent it

Implementation

  • Avoid storing information under the web root directory.

System Configuration

  • Access control permissions should be set to prevent reading/writing of sensitive files inside/outside of the web directory.

CWE-219 on MITRE's CWE site

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Source: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.