VulnScan

CWE-1188: Initialization of a Resource with an Insecure Default

What is CWE-1188?

MITRE CWE

The product initializes or sets a resource with a default that is intended to be changed by the product's installer, administrator, or maintainer, but the default is not secure.

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Detailed description

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Characteristics

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Common consequences

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Mitigations

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Detection methods

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Representative vulnerabilities

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Official MITRE CWE dataMITRE CWE

Original source fields and evidence from the MITRE CWE record.

Official definition

MITRE CWE

The product initializes or sets a resource with a default that is intended to be changed by the product's installer, administrator, or maintainer, but the default is not secure.

Modes of introduction

  • Implementation: Developers often choose default values that leave the product as open and easy to use as possible out-of-the-box, under the assumption that the administrator can (or should) change the default value. However, this ease-of-use comes at a cost when the default is insecure and the administrator does not change it.
  • System Configuration

Common consequences

  • Other

    Varies by Context

    The impact of insecure defaults varies widely depending on the functionality that the product controls.

Detection methods

  • Automated Static AnalysisAutomated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Representative vulnerabilities

These examples illustrate this CWE entry and are not an exhaustive list of related vulnerabilities.

  • CVE-2022-36349insecure default variable initialization in BIOS firmware for a hardware board allows DoS
  • CVE-2022-42467A generic database browser interface has a default mode that exposes a web server to the network, allowing queries to the database.

Sources and references

References

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