CWE-322: Key Exchange without Entity Authentication
Description
The product performs a key exchange with an actor without verifying the identity of that actor.
Performing a key exchange will preserve the integrity of the information sent between two entities, but this will not guarantee that the entities are who they claim they are. This may enable an attacker to impersonate an actor by modifying traffic between the two entities. Typically, this involves a victim client that contacts a malicious server that is impersonating a trusted server. If the client skips authentication or ignores an authentication failure, the malicious server may request authentication information from the user. The malicious server can then use this authentication information to log in to the trusted server using the victim's credentials, sniff traffic between the victim and trusted server, etc.
- Abstraction
- BaseA weakness specific enough to point to detection and prevention methods.
- Likelihood of exploit
- High
- Status
- Draft
Common consequences
- Access Control
Bypass Protection Mechanism
No authentication takes place in this process, bypassing an assumed protection of encryption.
- Confidentiality
Read Application Data
The encrypted communication between a user and a trusted host may be subject to sniffing by any actor in the communication path.
Potential mitigations
- Architecture and Design
Ensure that proper authentication is included in the system design.
- Implementation
Understand and properly implement all checks necessary to ensure the identity of entities involved in encrypted communications.
Related weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.