Weakness · Medium
CWE-532: Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File
What it is
The product writes sensitive information to a log file.
- Severity (our rating)
- Medium
- Likelihood of exploit
- Medium
- Introduced during
- Architecture and Design, Implementation, Operation
- Exploited in the wild
- 2 known exploited CVEs
What an attacker can do
- Read Application Data (Confidentiality)
How to prevent it
Architecture and Design
- Consider seriously the sensitivity of the information written into log files. Do not write secrets into the log files.
Distribution
- Remove debug log files before deploying the application into production.
Operation
- Protect log files against unauthorized read/write.
Implementation
- Adjust configurations appropriately when software is transitioned from a debug state to production.
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.)
Exploited in the wild: 2 CVEs
Vulnerabilities caused by CWE-532 that attackers have used, from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, newest first.
H2 Security
Found it in your code?
We review where it appears, fix it with your team, and check it was not already used against you.
Talk to our teamT Academy
Stop writing it in the first place
Learn to build software and systems without weaknesses like this one, with practice on real hosts in your browser, every objective checked on the machine.
Start freeSource: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.