CWE-620: Unverified Password Change
Description
When setting a new password for a user, the product does not require knowledge of the original password, or using another form of authentication.
This could be used by an attacker to change passwords for another user, thus gaining the privileges associated with that user.
- Abstraction
- BaseA weakness specific enough to point to detection and prevention methods.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Draft
Common consequences
- Access Control
Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
Potential mitigations
- Architecture and Design
When prompting for a password change, force the user to provide the original password in addition to the new password.
- Architecture and Design
Do not use forgotten password functionality. But if you must, ensure that you are only providing information to the actual user, e.g. by using an email address or challenge question that the legitimate user already provided in the past; do not allow the current user to change this identity information until the correct password has been provided.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.