CWE-565
Reliance on Cookies without Validation and Integrity Checking
AI Translation Available
The product relies on the existence or values of cookies when performing security-critical operations, but it does not properly ensure that the setting is valid for the associated user.
Status
incomplete
Abstraction
base
Affected Platforms
Technical Details
AI Translation
Common Consequences
confidentiality
integrity
availability
access control
Impacts
modify application data
execute unauthorized code or commands
gain privileges or assume identity
Detection Methods
automated static analysis
Potential Mitigations
Phases:
architecture and design
implementation
Descriptions:
•
Avoid using cookie data for a security-related decision.
•
Add integrity checks to detect tampering.
•
Perform thorough input validation (i.e.: server side validation) on the cookie data if you're going to use it for a security related decision.
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Protect critical cookies from replay attacks, since cross-site scripting or other attacks may allow attackers to steal a strongly-encrypted cookie that also passes integrity checks. This mitigation applies to cookies that should only be valid during a single transaction or session. By enforcing timeouts, you may limit the scope of an attack. As part of your integrity check, use an unpredictable, server-side value that is not exposed to the client.