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Weakness · High

CWE-304: Missing Critical Step in Authentication

What it is

The product implements an authentication technique, but it skips a step that weakens the technique.

MITRE CWE 4.19.1

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

In more detail

Authentication techniques should follow the algorithms that define them exactly, otherwise authentication can be bypassed or more easily subjected to brute force attacks.

What an attacker can do

  • Bypass Protection Mechanism (Access Control, Integrity, Confidentiality)
  • Gain Privileges or Assume Identity (Access Control, Integrity, Confidentiality)
  • Read Application Data (Access Control, Integrity, Confidentiality)
  • Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands (Access Control, Integrity, Confidentiality)

How to prevent it

MITRE lists no specific mitigation for this weakness. Treat it like its parent weaknesses below: validate input, keep the design simple and review the code where it could appear.

How to find it

  • 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.)

CWE-304 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.