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Top 10 2013-A5-Security Misconfiguration
NOTE: THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION. Please visit the OWASP Top 10 project page to find the latest edition.
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Threat Agents | Attack Vectors | Security Weakness | Technical Impacts | Business Impacts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Application Specific | Exploitability EASY |
Prevalence COMMON |
Detectability EASY |
Impact MODERATE |
Application / Business Specific |
Consider anonymous external attackers as well as users with their own accounts that may attempt to compromise the system. Also consider insiders wanting to disguise their actions. . | Attacker accesses default accounts, unused pages, unpatched flaws, unprotected files and directories, etc. to gain unauthorized access to or knowledge of the system. | Security misconfiguration can happen at any level of an application stack, including the platform, web server, application server, framework, and custom code. Developers and network administrators need to work together to ensure that the entire stack is configured properly. Automated scanners are useful for detecting missing patches, misconfigurations, use of default accounts, unnecessary services, etc. | Such flaws frequently give attackers unauthorized access to some system data or functionality. Occasionally, such flaws result in a complete system compromise. | The system could be completely compromised without you knowing it. All your data could be stolen or modified slowly over time. Recovery costs could be expensive. |
Am I Vulnerable To 'Security Misconfiguration'?
Have you performed the proper security hardening across the entire application stack?
A concerted, repeatable process is required to develop and maintain a proper application security configuration. |
How Do I Prevent 'Security Misconfiguration'?
The primary recommendations are to establish all of the following:
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Example Attack Scenarios
Scenario #1: The app server admin console is automatically installed and not removed. Default accounts aren’t changed. Attacker discovers the standard admin pages are on your server, logs in with default passwords, and takes over. Scenario #2: Directory listing is not disabled on your server. Attacker discovers she can simply list directories to find any file. Attacker finds and downloads all your compiled Java classes, which she reverses to get all your custom code. She then finds a serious access control flaw in your application. Scenario #3: App server configuration allows stack traces to be returned to users, potentially exposing underlying flaws. Attackers love the extra information error messages provide. Scenario #4: App server comes with sample applications that are not removed from your production server. Said sample applications have well known security flaws attackers can use to compromise your server. |
References
OWASP
For additional requirements in this area, see the ASVS requirements area for Security Configuration (V12). External
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