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CWE-212 - Improper Removal of Sensitive Information Before Storage or Transfer

CWE-212

  • Abstraction:
  • Base
  • Structure:
  • Simple
  • Status:
  • Incomplete
Weakness Name

Improper Removal of Sensitive Information Before Storage or Transfer

Description

The product stores, transfers, or shares a resource that contains sensitive information, but it does not properly remove that information before the product makes the resource available to unauthorized actors.

Resources that may contain sensitive data include documents, packets, messages, databases, etc. While this data may be useful to an individual user or small set of users who share the resource, it may need to be removed before the resource can be shared outside of the trusted group. The process of removal is sometimes called cleansing or scrubbing. For example, a product for editing documents might not remove sensitive data such as reviewer comments or the local pathname where the document is stored. Or, a proxy might not remove an internal IP address from headers before making an outgoing request to an Internet site.

Common Consequences

Scope: Confidentiality

Impact: Read Files or Directories, Read Application Data

Notes: Sensitive data may be exposed to an unauthorized actor in another control sphere. This may have a wide range of secondary consequences which will depend on what data is exposed. One possibility is the exposure of system data allowing an attacker to craft a specific, more effective attack.

Related Weaknesses
  • Release Date:
  • 2006-07-19
  • Latest Modification Date:
  • 2024-02-29

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