Missing Authentication for Critical FunctionID: 306 | Date: (C)2012-05-14 (M)2022-10-10 |
Type: weakness | Status: DRAFT |
Abstraction Type: Variant |
Description
The software does not perform any authentication for
functionality that requires a provable user identity or consumes a significant
amount of resources.
Likelihood of Exploit: Medium to High
Applicable PlatformsLanguage Class: Language-independent
Time Of Introduction
Related Attack Patterns
Common Consequences
Scope | Technical Impact | Notes |
---|
Access_ControlOther | Gain privileges / assume
identityOther | Exposing critical functionality essentially provides an attacker with
the privilege level of that functionality. The consequences will depend
on the associated functionality, but they can range from reading or
modifying sensitive data, access to administrative or other privileged
functionality, or possibly even execution of arbitrary code. |
Detection Methods
Name | Description | Effectiveness | Notes |
---|
Manual Analysis | This weakness can be detected using tools and techniques that require
manual (human) analysis, such as penetration testing, threat modeling,
and interactive tools that allow the tester to record and modify an
active session.Specifically, manual static analysis is useful for evaluating the
correctness of custom authentication mechanisms. | | |
Automated Static Analysis | Automated static analysis is useful for detecting commonly-used idioms
for authentication. A tool may be able to analyze related configuration
files, such as .htaccess in Apache web servers, or detect the usage of
commonly-used authentication libraries.Generally, automated static analysis tools have difficulty detecting
custom authentication schemes. In addition, the software's design may
include some functionality that is accessible to any user and does not
require an established identity; an automated technique that detects the
absence of authentication may report false positives. | Limited | |
Potential Mitigations
Phase | Strategy | Description | Effectiveness | Notes |
---|
Architecture and Design | | Divide the software into anonymous, normal, privileged, and
administrative areas. Identify which of these areas require a proven
user identity, and use a centralized authentication capability.Identify all potential communication channels, or other means of
interaction with the software, to ensure that all channels are
appropriately protected. Developers sometimes perform authentication at
the primary channel, but open up a secondary channel that is assumed to
be private. For example, a login mechanism may be listening on one
network port, but after successful authentication, it may open up a
second port where it waits for the connection, but avoids authentication
because it assumes that only the authenticated party will connect to the
port.In general, if the software or protocol allows a single session or
user state to persist across multiple connections or channels,
authentication and appropriate credential management need to be used
throughout. | | |
Architecture and Design | | For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure
that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid
CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values
after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to
remove the client-side checks entirely. Then, these modified values
would be submitted to the server. | | |
Architecture and Design | | Where possible, avoid implementing custom authentication routines and
consider using authentication capabilities as provided by the
surrounding framework, operating system, or environment. These may make
it easier to provide a clear separation between authentication tasks and
authorization tasks.In environments such as the World Wide Web, the line between
authentication and authorization is sometimes blurred. If custom
authentication routines are required instead of those provided by the
server, then these routines must be applied to every single page, since
these pages could be requested directly. | | |
Architecture and Design | Libraries or Frameworks | Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to
occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to
avoid.For example, consider using libraries with authentication capabilities
such as OpenSSL or the ESAPI Authenticator [R.306.3]. | | |
RelationshipsThis is separate from "bypass" issues in which authentication exists, but
is faulty.
Related CWE | Type | View | Chain |
---|
CWE-306 ChildOf CWE-898 | Category | CWE-888 | |
Demonstrative Examples (Details)
- In the following Java example the method createBankAccount is used
to create a BankAccount object for a bank management
application.
Observed Examples
- CVE-2002-1810 : MFV. Access TFTP server without authentication and obtain configuration file with sensitive plaintext information.
- CVE-2008-6827 : Agent software running at privileges does not authenticate incoming requests over an unprotected channel, allowing a Shatter" attack.
- CVE-2004-0213 : Product enforces restrictions through a GUI but not through privileged APIs.
For more examples, refer to CVE relations in the bottom box.
White Box Definitions None
Black Box Definitions None
Taxynomy Mappings
Taxynomy | Id | Name | Fit |
---|
PLOVER | | No Authentication for Critical Function | |
References:
- Mark Dowd John McDonald Justin Schuh .The Art of Software Security Assessment 1st Edition. Addison Wesley. Section:'Chapter 2, "Common Vulnerabilities of Authentication," Page
36'. Published on 2006.
- Frank Kim .Top 25 Series - Rank 19 - Missing Authentication for Critical
Function. SANS Software Security Institute. 2010-02-23.
- OWASP .OWASP Enterprise Security API (ESAPI) Project.