CWE-550: Server-generated Error Message Containing Sensitive Information
Description
Certain conditions, such as network failure, will cause a server error message to be displayed.
While error messages in and of themselves are not dangerous, per se, it is what an attacker can glean from them that might cause eventual problems.
- Abstraction
- VariantA weakness tied to a specific language, technology or resource.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Incomplete
Common consequences
- Confidentiality
Read Application Data
Potential mitigations
- Architecture and DesignSystem Configuration
Recommendations include designing and adding consistent error handling mechanisms which are capable of handling any user input to your web application, providing meaningful detail to end-users, and preventing error messages that might provide information useful to an attacker from being displayed.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.