CWEweakness
CWE-211 Externally-Generated Error Message Containing Sensitive Information
- Abstraction
- Base
- Structure
- Simple
- Status
- Incomplete
- Languages
- Not Language-Specific, PHP
- CWE version
- 5.0
Description
The product performs an operation that triggers an external diagnostic or error message that is not directly generated or controlled by the product, such as an error generated by the programming language interpreter that a software application uses. The error can contain sensitive system information.
Common consequences
• Confidentiality: Read Application Data
Potential mitigations
• [System Configuration] Configure the application's environment in a way that prevents errors from being generated. For example, in PHP, disable display_errors.
• [Implementation, Build and Compilation] Debugging information should not make its way into a production release.
• [Implementation, Build and Compilation] Debugging information should not make its way into a production release.
• [Implementation] Handle exceptions internally and do not display errors containing potentially sensitive information to a user. Create default error pages if necessary.
• [Implementation] The best way to prevent this weakness during implementation is to avoid any bugs that could trigger the external error message. This typically happens when the program encounters fatal errors, such as a divide-by-zero. You will not always be able to control the use of error pages, and you might not be using a language that handles exceptions.
Observed examples
• CVE-2004-1581: Chain: product does not protect against direct request of an include file, leading to resultant path disclosure when the include file does not successfully execute.
• CVE-2004-1579: Single "'" inserted into SQL query leads to invalid SQL query execution, triggering full path disclosure. Possibly resultant from more general SQL injection issue.
• CVE-2005-0459: Chain: product does not protect against direct request of a library file, leading to resultant path disclosure when the file does not successfully execute.
• CVE-2005-0443: invalid parameter triggers a failure to find an include file, leading to infoleak in error message.
• CVE-2005-0433: Various invalid requests lead to information leak in verbose error messages describing the failure to instantiate a class, open a configuration file, or execute an undefined function.
• CVE-2004-1101: Improper handling of filename request with trailing "/" causes multiple consequences, including information leak in Visual Basic error message.
Related
Observed example · CVE (6)
- CVE-2005-0443 index.php in CubeCart 2.0.4 allows remote attackers to (1) obtain the full path for the web server or (2) conduct cross-site scripting… vulnerability
- CVE-2005-0459 phpMyAdmin 2.6.2-dev, and possibly earlier versions, allows remote attackers to determine the full path of the web root via a direct… vulnerability
- CVE-2005-0433 Php-Nuke 7.5 allows remote attackers to determine the full path of the web server via invalid or missing arguments to (1) db.php, (2)… vulnerability
- CVE-2004-1101 mailpost.exe in MailPost 5.1.1sv, and possibly earlier versions, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (server crash), leak… vulnerability
- CVE-2004-1579 index.php in CubeCart 2.0.1 allows remote attackers to gain sensitive information via an HTTP request with an invalid cat_id parameter,… vulnerability
- CVE-2004-1581 BlackBoard 1.5.1 allows remote attackers to gain sensitive information via a direct request to (1) checkdb.inc.php, (2) admin.inc.php or… vulnerability
Child of · CWE (1)
- CWE-209 Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information weakness