CWE-640

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password

High

Description

The product contains a mechanism for users to recover or change their passwords without knowing the original password, but the mechanism is weak.

Potential Impact

How to Fix

Architecture and Design

Make sure that all input supplied by the user to the password recovery mechanism is thoroughly filtered and validated.

Architecture and Design

Do not use standard weak security questions and use several security questions.

Architecture and Design

Make sure that there is throttling on the number of incorrect answers to a security question. Disable the password recovery functionality after a certain (small) number of incorrect guesses.

Architecture and Design

Require that the user properly answers the security question prior to resetting their password and sending the new password to the e-mail address of record.

Architecture and Design

Never allow the user to control what e-mail address the new password will be sent to in the password recovery mechanism.

Related Weaknesses

References

View on MITRE CWE Database →

Need Help Fixing This Vulnerability?

Our security experts can help you identify and remediate CWE-640 vulnerabilities in your codebase.

Get Security Assessment