CWE-256

Plaintext Storage of a Password

The product stores a password in plaintext within resources such as memory or files.

Mitigation

Phase: Architecture and Design

Description:

  • Avoid storing passwords in easily accessible locations.
Mitigation

Phase: Architecture and Design

Description:

  • Consider storing cryptographic hashes of passwords as an alternative to storing in plaintext.
Mitigation

Phases:

Description:

  • A programmer might attempt to remedy the password management problem by obscuring the password with an encoding function, such as base 64 encoding, but this effort does not adequately protect the password because the encoding can be detected and decoded easily.

No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.

Back to CWE stats page