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CWE-211

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CWE-211

Externally-Generated Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

Base
Incomplete

Description

The product performs an operation that triggers an external diagnostic or error message that is not directly generated or controlled by the product, such as an error generated by the programming language interpreter that a software application uses. The error can contain sensitive system information.

Common Consequences

Scope

Confidentiality

Impact

Read Application Data

Potential Mitigations

System Configuration

Configure the application's environment in a way that prevents errors from being generated. For example, in PHP, disable display_errors.

Implementation
Build and Compilation

Debugging information should not make its way into a production release.

Implementation
Build and Compilation

Debugging information should not make its way into a production release.

Implementation

Handle exceptions internally and do not display errors containing potentially sensitive information to a user. Create default error pages if necessary.

Implementation

The best way to prevent this weakness during implementation is to avoid any bugs that could trigger the external error message. This typically happens when the program encounters fatal errors, such as a divide-by-zero. You will not always be able to control the use of error pages, and you might not be using a language that handles exceptions.

CVE-2004-1581

chain: product does not protect against direct request of an include file, leading to resultant path disclosure when the include file does not successfully execute.

CVE-2004-1579

Single "'" inserted into SQL query leads to invalid SQL query execution, triggering full path disclosure. Possibly resultant from more general SQL injection issue.

CVE-2005-0459

chain: product does not protect against direct request of a library file, leading to resultant path disclosure when the file does not successfully execute.

CVE-2005-0443

invalid parameter triggers a failure to find an include file, leading to infoleak in error message.

CVE-2005-0433

Various invalid requests lead to information leak in verbose error messages describing the failure to instantiate a class, open a configuration file, or execute an undefined function.

CVE-2004-1101

Improper handling of filename request with trailing "/" causes multiple consequences, including information leak in Visual Basic error message.

Applicable Platforms

PHP
Not Language-Specific

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