CWE-565

Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking

High

Description

The product relies on the existence or values of cookies when performing security-critical operations, but it does not properly ensure that the setting is valid for the associated user.

Potential Impact

How to Fix

Architecture and Design

Avoid using cookie data for a security-related decision.

Implementation

Perform thorough input validation (i.e.: server side validation) on the cookie data if you're going to use it for a security related decision.

Architecture and Design

Add integrity checks to detect tampering.

Architecture and Design

Protect critical cookies from replay attacks, since cross-site scripting or other attacks may allow attackers to steal a strongly-encrypted cookie that also passes integrity checks. This mitigation applies to cookies that should only be valid during a single transaction or session. By enforcing timeouts, you may limit the scope of an attack. As part of your integrity check, use an unpredictable, server-side value that is not exposed to the client.

Detection Methods

Related Weaknesses

References

View on MITRE CWE Database →

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