Use of Password Hash Instead of Password for Authentication

The product records password hashes in a data store, receives a hash of a password from a client, and compares the supplied hash to the hash obtained from the data store.


Description

Some authentication mechanisms rely on the client to generate the hash for a password, possibly to reduce load on the server or avoid sending the password across the network. However, when the client is used to generate the hash, an attacker can bypass the authentication by obtaining a copy of the hash, e.g. by using SQL injection to compromise a database of authentication credentials, or by exploiting an information exposure. The attacker could then use a modified client to replay the stolen hash without having knowledge of the original password.

As a result, the server-side comparison against a client-side hash does not provide any more security than the use of passwords without hashing.

See Also

Comprehensive Categorization: Access Control

Weaknesses in this category are related to access control.

Authentication Errors

Weaknesses in this category are related to authentication components of a system. Frequently these deal with the ability to verify that an entity is indeed who it clai...

Authenticate Actors

Weaknesses in this category are related to the design and architecture of authentication components of the system. Frequently these deal with verifying the entity is i...

Comprehensive CWE Dictionary

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Weaknesses Introduced During Implementation

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Weakness Base Elements

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