J2EE Misconfiguration: Data Transmission Without Encryption
Draft Variant
Structure: Simple
Description
Information sent over a network can be compromised while in transit. An attacker may be able to read or modify the contents if the data are sent in plaintext or are weakly encrypted.
Common Consequences 2
Scope: Confidentiality
Impact: Read Application Data
Scope: Integrity
Impact: Modify Application Data
Potential Mitigations 1
Phase: System Configuration
The product configuration should ensure that SSL or an encryption mechanism of equivalent strength and vetted reputation is used for all access-controlled pages.
References 1
Seven Pernicious Kingdoms: A Taxonomy of Software Security Errors
Katrina Tsipenyuk, Brian Chess, and Gary McGraw
NIST Workshop on Software Security Assurance Tools Techniques and Metrics • NIST
07-11-2005
ID: REF-6
Applicable Platforms
Languages:
Java : Undetermined
Modes of Introduction
Implementation
Operation
Related Weaknesses
Taxonomy Mapping
- 7 Pernicious Kingdoms
Notes
Other
If an application uses SSL to guarantee confidential communication with client browsers, the application configuration should make it impossible to view any access controlled page without SSL. There are three common ways for SSL to be bypassed:
- A user manually enters URL and types "HTTP" rather than "HTTPS".
- Attackers intentionally send a user to an insecure URL.
- A programmer erroneously creates a relative link to a page in the application, which does not switch from HTTP to HTTPS. (This is particularly easy to do when the link moves between public and secured areas on a web site.)