Exposure of Sensitive Information Through Metadata

The product prevents direct access to a resource containing sensitive information, but it does not sufficiently limit access to metadata that is derived from the original, sensitive information.


Description

Developers might correctly prevent unauthorized access to a database or other resource containing sensitive information, but they might not consider that portions of the original information might also be recorded in metadata, search indices, statistical reports, or other resources. If these resources are not also restricted, then attackers might be able to extract some or all of the original information, or otherwise infer some details. For example, an attacker could specify search terms that are known to be unique to a particular person, or view metadata such as activity or creation dates in order to identify usage patterns.

See Also

Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control

Weaknesses in this category are related to access control.

Authorization Errors

Weaknesses in this category are related to authorization components of a system. Frequently these deal with the ability to enforce that agents have the required permis...

Information Management Errors

Weaknesses in this category are related to improper handling of sensitive information.

Comprehensive CWE Dictionary

This view (slice) covers all the elements in CWE.

Weaknesses Introduced During Design

This view (slice) lists weaknesses that can be introduced during design.

Weakness Base Elements

This view (slice) displays only weakness base elements.


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