CWE-779
Logging of Excessive Data
AI Translation Available
The product logs too much information, making log files hard to process and possibly hindering recovery efforts or forensic analysis after an attack.
Status
draft
Abstraction
base
Likelihood
low
Affected Platforms
Extended Description
AI Translation
While logging is a good practice in general, and very high levels of logging are appropriate for debugging stages of development, too much logging in a production environment might hinder a system administrator's ability to detect anomalous conditions. This can provide cover for an attacker while attempting to penetrate a system, clutter the audit trail for forensic analysis, or make it more difficult to debug problems in a production environment.
Technical Details
AI Translation
Common Consequences
availability
non-repudiation
Impacts
dos: resource consumption (cpu)
dos: resource consumption (other)
hide activities
Detection Methods
automated static analysis
Potential Mitigations
Phases:
architecture and design
implementation
Descriptions:
•
Suppress large numbers of duplicate log messages and replace them with periodic summaries. For example, syslog may include an entry that states "last message repeated X times" when recording repeated events.
•
Adjust configurations appropriately when the product is transitioned from a debug state to production.
•
Support a maximum size for the log file that can be controlled by the administrator. If the maximum size is reached, the admin should be notified. Also, consider reducing functionality of the product. This may result in a denial-of-service to legitimate product users, but it will prevent the product from adversely impacting the entire system.