1410
Extended Description
It is common for an application to have a mechanism that provides a means for a user to gain
access to their account in the event they forget their password. Very often the password recovery
mechanism is weak, which has the effect of making it more likely that it would be possible for a
person other than the legitimate system user to gain access to that user's account. Weak password
recovery schemes completely undermine a strong password authentication scheme.
This weakness may be that the security question is too easy to guess or find an answer to (e.g.
because the question is too common, or the answers can be found using social media). Or there
might be an implementation weakness in the password recovery mechanism code that may for
instance trick the system into e-mailing the new password to an e-mail account other than that
of the user. There might be no throttling done on the rate of password resets so that a legitimate
user can be denied service by an attacker if an attacker tries to recover their password in a rapid
succession. The system may send the original password to the user rather than generating a new
temporary password. In summary, password recovery functionality, if not carefully designed and
implemented can often become the system's weakest link that can be misused in a way that would
allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to the system.
Relationships
The table(s) below shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this
weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOr and give insight to
similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such
as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that may want to be explored.
Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (CWE-1000)
Nature Type ID Name Page
ChildOf 1390 Weak Authentication 2267
Relevant to the view "Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published
Vulnerabilities" (CWE-1003)
Nature Type ID Name Page
ChildOf 287 Improper Authentication 692
Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (CWE-1008)
Nature Type ID Name Page
MemberOf 1010 Authenticate Actors 2424
Relevant to the view "Software Development" (CWE-699)
Nature Type ID Name Page
MemberOf 255 Credentials Management Errors 2315
MemberOf 840 Business Logic Errors 2360
Applicable Platforms
Language : Not Language-Specific (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Likelihood Of Exploit
High
Common Consequences
Scope Impact Likelihood
Access Control Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
An attacker could gain unauthorized access to the system
by retrieving legitimate user's authentication credentials.
Availability DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
CWE Version 4.14
CWE-640: Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
CWE-640: Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password