Weakness · Medium
CWE-538: Insertion of Sensitive Information into Externally-Accessible File or Directory
What it is
The product places sensitive information into files or directories that are accessible to actors who are allowed to have access to the files, but not to the sensitive information.
- 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
What an attacker can do
- Read Files or Directories (Confidentiality)
How to prevent it
Architecture and Design
- Do not expose file and directory information to the user.
While the code is being fixed, a WAF in blocking mode stops requests for exposed secret files (.env, .aws, credential files) at the edge.
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.)
The Dome
Block it at the edge while you fix it
The Dome's WAF runs the OWASP Core Rule Set in blocking mode and stops requests for exposed secret files (.env, .aws, credential files) before they reach your application.
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Start freeSource: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.