CAPEC-204 Lifting Sensitive Data Embedded in Cache

An adversary examines a target application's cache, or a browser cache, for sensitive information. Many applications that communicate with remote entities or which perform intensive calculations utilize caches to improve efficiency. However, if the application computes or receives sensitive information and the cache is not appropriately protected, an attacker can browse the cache and retrieve this information. This can result in the disclosure of sensitive information.

1. [Explore] [Identify Application Cache] An adversary first identifies an application that utilizes a cache. This could either be a web application storing data in a browser cache, or an application running on a separate machine. The adversary examines the cache to determine file permissions and possible encryption. 2. [Experiment] [Attempt to Access Cache] Once the cache has been discovered, the adversary attempts to access the cached data. This often requires previous access to a machine hosting the target application. 3. [Exploit] [Lift Sensitive Data from Cache] After gaining access to cached data, an adversary looks for potentially sensitive information and stores it for malicious use. This sensitive data could possibly be used in follow-up attacks related to authentication or authorization.

• The target application must store sensitive information in a cache. • The cache must be inadequately protected against attacker access.