CWE-540: Inclusion of Sensitive Information in Source Code
Description
Source code on a web server or repository often contains sensitive information and should generally not be accessible to users.
There are situations where it is critical to remove source code from an area or server. For example, obtaining Perl source code on a system allows an attacker to understand the logic of the script and extract extremely useful information such as code bugs or logins and passwords.
- Abstraction
- BaseA weakness specific enough to point to detection and prevention methods.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Incomplete
Common consequences
- Confidentiality
Read Application Data
Potential mitigations
- Architecture and DesignSystem Configuration
Recommendations include removing this script from the web server and moving it to a location not accessible from the Internet.
Related weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.