CWE-656 - Reliance on Security Through Obscurity

CWE ID:

CWE-656

Abstraction:Class
Structure:Simple
Status:Draft

Release Date:2008-01-30
Latest Modification Date:2023-10-26

Weakness Name

Reliance on Security Through Obscurity

Description

The product uses a protection mechanism whose strength depends heavily on its obscurity, such that knowledge of its algorithms or key data is sufficient to defeat the mechanism.

This reliance on "security through obscurity" can produce resultant weaknesses if an attacker is able to reverse engineer the inner workings of the mechanism. Note that obscurity can be one small part of defense in depth, since it can create more work for an attacker; however, it is a significant risk if used as the primary means of protection.