CWE-565

Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking

Base

What it is

The product relies on the existence or values of cookies when performing security-critical operations, but it does not properly ensure that the setting is valid for the associated user.

Impact

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability	Modify Application Data, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Access Control	Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Mitigations

[Architecture and Design] Avoid using cookie data for a security-related decision.
[Implementation] Perform thorough input validation (i.e.: server side validation) on the cookie data if you're going to use it for a security related decision.
[Architecture and Design] Add integrity checks to detect tampering.
[Architecture and Design] Protect critical cookies from replay attacks, since cross-site scripting or other attacks may allow attackers to steal a strongly-encrypted cookie that also passes integrity checks. This mitigation applies to cookies that should only be valid during a single transaction or session. By enforcing timeouts, you may limit the scope of an attack. As part of your integrity check, use an unpredictable, s

Real-world CVE examples

CVE-2008-5784 — e-dating application allows admin privileges by setting the admin cookie to 1.

Related weaknesses

CWE-642 (childof)CWE-669 (childof)CWE-602 (childof)

Test & detect

Browse all common weaknesses, check related exploited CVEs, or map to ATT&CK techniques.

Source: MITRE CWE. View on cwe.mitre.org →