Sensitive Data Exposure OWASP 2013

Many of the web applications do not properly protect their sensitive datas. Attackers may modify or steal such weakly protected data to conduct identity theft or other crimes. Sensitive data deserve extra protection such as encryption at rest and in transit.

Example

If the password database uses unsalted hashes to store passwords. A flaw in file upload that allows an attacker to retrieve the password file. All of the unsalted hashes will be exposed.

Impact

Sensitive Data Exposure frequently compromises all data that should have been protected. Typically, this information includes sensitive data such as credentials, personal data, credit cards.

Mitigation / Precaution

• Make sure to encrypt all sensitive data that are at rest.
• Disable caching for the responses that may contain sensitive data.
• Store all passwords using adaptive and salted hashing functions for better security.

Written by

Nash N Sulthan

Cyber Security Lead Engineer