Weakness · High
CWE-498: Cloneable Class Containing Sensitive Information
What it is
The code contains a class with sensitive data, but the class is cloneable. The data can then be accessed by cloning the class.
- Severity (our rating)
- High
- Likelihood of exploit
- Medium
- Introduced during
- Implementation
- Exploited in the wild
- No CVE in CISA's catalog
In more detail
Cloneable classes are effectively open classes, since data cannot be hidden in them. Classes that do not explicitly deny cloning can be cloned by any other class without running the constructor.
What an attacker can do
- Bypass Protection Mechanism (Access Control)
How to prevent it
Implementation
- If you do make your classes clonable, ensure that your clone method is final and throw super.clone().
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.)
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Start freeSource: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.