Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten PasswordID: 640 | Date: (C)2012-05-14 (M)2022-10-10 |
Type: weakness | Status: INCOMPLETE |
Abstraction Type: Base |
Description
The software contains a mechanism for users to recover or
change their passwords without knowing the original password, but the mechanism
is weak.
Extended DescriptionIt is common for an application to have a mechanism that provides a means
for a user to gain access to their account in the event they forget their
password. Very often the password recovery mechanism is weak, which has the
effect of making it more likely that it would be possible for a person other
than the legitimate system user to gain access to that user's
account.This weakness may be that the security question is too easy to guess or
find an answer to (e.g. because it is too common). Or there might be an
implementation weakness in the password recovery mechanism code that may for
instance trick the system into e-mailing the new password to an e-mail
account other than that of the user. There might be no throttling done on
the rate of password resets so that a legitimate user can be denied service
by an attacker if an attacker tries to recover their password in a rapid
succession. The system may send the original password to the user rather
than generating a new temporary password. In summary, password recovery
functionality, if not carefully designed and implemented can often become
the system's weakest link that can be misused in a way that would allow an
attacker to gain unauthorized access to the system. Weak password recovery
schemes completely undermine a strong password authentication scheme.
Enabling Factors for ExploitationThe system allows users to recover their passwords and gain access back
into the system.Password recovery mechanism relies only on something the user knows and
not something the user has.Weak security questions are used.No third party intervention is required to use the password recovery
mechanism.
Likelihood of Exploit: High
Applicable PlatformsLanguage Class: All
Time Of Introduction
- Architecture and Design
- Implementation
Related Attack Patterns
Common Consequences
Scope | Technical Impact | Notes |
---|
Access_Control | Gain privileges / assume
identity | An attacker could gain unauthorized access to the system by retrieving
legitimate user's authentication credentials. |
Availability | DoS: resource consumption
(other) | An attacker could deny service to legitimate system users by launching
a brute force attack on the password recovery mechanism using user ids
of legitimate users. |
IntegrityOther | Other | The system's security functionality is turned against the system by
the attacker. |
Detection MethodsNone
Potential Mitigations
Phase | Strategy | Description | Effectiveness | Notes |
---|
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. | | |
Architecture and Design | | Assign a new temporary password rather than revealing the original
password. | | |
Relationships
Related CWE | Type | View | Chain |
---|
CWE-640 ChildOf CWE-903 | Category | CWE-888 | |
Demonstrative ExamplesNone
Observed Examples
- : A famous example of this type of weakness being exploited is the eBay attack. eBay always displays the user id of the highest bidder. In the final minutes of the auction, one of the bidders could try to log in as the highest bidder three times. After three incorrect log in attempts, eBay password throttling would kick in and lock out the highest bidder's account for some time. An attacker could then make their own bid and their victim would not have a chance to place the counter bid because they would be locked out. Thus an attacker could win the auction.
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 |
---|
WASC | 49 | Insufficient Password Recovery | |
References:
- Michael Howard David LeBlanc John Viega .24 Deadly Sins of Software Security. McGraw-Hill. Section:'"Sin 19: Use of Weak Password-Based Systems." Page
279'. Published on 2010.