Weakness · High
CWE-942: Permissive Cross-domain Security Policy with Untrusted Domains
What it is
The product uses a web-client protection mechanism such as a Content Security Policy (CSP) or cross-domain policy file, but the policy includes untrusted domains with which the web client is allowed to communicate.
- Severity (our rating)
- High
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Introduced during
- Architecture and Design, Implementation
- Exploited in the wild
- No CVE in CISA's catalog
In more detail
If a cross-domain policy file includes domains that should not be trusted, such as when using wildcards under a high-level domain, then the application could be attacked by these untrusted domains. In many cases, the attack can be launched without the victim even being aware of it.
What an attacker can do
- Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
- Bypass Protection Mechanism (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
- Read Application Data (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
- Varies by Context (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Access Control)
How to prevent it
Architecture and Design
- Define a restrictive Content Security Policy or cross-domain policy file.
- Avoid using wildcards in the CSP / cross-domain policy file. Any domain matching the wildcard expression will be implicitly trusted, and can perform two-way interaction with the target server.
- For Flash, modify crossdomain.xml to use meta-policy options such as 'master-only' or 'none' to reduce the possibility of an attacker planting extraneous cross-domain policy files on a server.
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.)
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.