CWEweakness

CWE-535 Exposure of Information Through Shell Error Message

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Abstraction
Variant
Structure
Simple
Status
Incomplete
Languages
Not Language-Specific
CWE version
5.0

Description

A command shell error message indicates that there exists an unhandled exception in the web application code. In many cases, an attacker can leverage the conditions that cause these errors in order to gain unauthorized access to the system.

Common consequences

• Confidentiality: Read Application Data

Detection methods

• Automated Static Analysis: Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Related

Child of · CWE (1)

  • CWE-211 Externally-Generated Error Message Containing Sensitive Information weakness

Referenced by CVE · weakness (2)

  • CVE-2022-3375 An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting from 11.10 before 15.8.5, all versions starting from 15.9 before… vulnerability
  • CVE-2023-1098 An information disclosure vulnerability has been discovered in GitLab EE/CE affecting all versions starting from 11.5 before 15.8.5, all… vulnerability