CWE - CWE-315: Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in a Cookie (4.18)

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CWE Glossary Definition

CWE-315: Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in a Cookie

Weakness ID: 315

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Variant Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.

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Description

The product stores sensitive information in cleartext in a cookie.

Extended Description

Attackers can use widely-available tools to view the cookie and read the sensitive information. Even if the information is encoded in a way that is not human-readable, certain techniques could determine which encoding is being used, then decode the information.

Common Consequences

Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Impact	Details
Read Application Data	Scope: Confidentiality

Relationships

Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf 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 the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	312	Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

Relevant to the view "Architectural Concepts" (View-1008)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1013	Encrypt Data

Modes Of Introduction

Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Architecture and Design	OMISSION: This weakness is caused by missing a security tactic during the architecture and design phase.

Applicable Platforms

Section HelpThis listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

The following code excerpt stores a plaintext user account ID in a browser cookie.

(bad code)

Example Language: Java

response.addCookie( new Cookie("userAccountID", acctID) );

Because the account ID is in plaintext, the user's account information is exposed if their computer is compromised by an attacker.

Selected Observed Examples

Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

Reference	Description
CVE-2002-1800	Admin password in cleartext in a cookie.
CVE-2001-1537	Default configuration has cleartext usernames/passwords in cookie.
CVE-2001-1536	Usernames/passwords in cleartext in cookies.
CVE-2005-2160	Authentication information stored in cleartext in a cookie.

Detection Methods

Method	Details
Automated Static Analysis	Automated 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.) Effectiveness: High

Method

Details

Automated Static Analysis

Automated 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.)

Effectiveness: High

Memberships

Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	963	SFP Secondary Cluster: Exposed Data
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1349	OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A05:2021 - Security Misconfiguration
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1402	Comprehensive Categorization: Encryption

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage ALLOWED

(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

Reason Acceptable-Use

Rationale

This CWE entry is at the Variant level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Comments

Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Notes

Terminology

Different people use "cleartext" and "plaintext" to mean the same thing: the lack of encryption. However, within cryptography, these have more precise meanings. Plaintext is the information just before it is fed into a cryptographic algorithm, including already-encrypted text. Cleartext is any information that is unencrypted, although it might be in an encoded form that is not easily human-readable (such as base64 encoding).

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
PLOVER	Plaintext Storage in Cookie
Software Fault Patterns	SFP23	Exposed Data

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID	Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-31	Accessing/Intercepting/Modifying HTTP Cookies
CAPEC-37	Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data
CAPEC-39	Manipulating Opaque Client-based Data Tokens
CAPEC-74	Manipulating State

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2006年07月19日 (CWE Draft 3, 2006年07月19日)	PLOVER
2006年07月19日 (CWE Draft 3, 2006年07月19日)
Contributions
Contribution Date	Contributor	Organization
2024年10月28日 (CWE 4.17, 2025年04月03日)	Camille Gouttebroze	CAST Software
2024年10月28日 (CWE 4.17, 2025年04月03日)	reported a syntax error in demox 1
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2023年06月29日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年06月29日	updated Mapping_Notes
2023年04月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年04月27日	updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
2023年01月31日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年01月31日	updated Description
2021年10月28日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2021年10月28日	updated Relationships
2020年02月24日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020年02月24日	updated Relationships
2017年11月08日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017年11月08日	updated Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships
2014年07月30日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014年07月30日	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2013年07月17日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2013年07月17日	updated Applicable_Platforms, Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Name, Observed_Examples, Potential_Mitigations, Terminology_Notes
2012年05月11日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012年05月11日	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
2011年06月01日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011年06月01日	updated Common_Consequences
2008年09月08日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008年09月08日	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2008年07月01日	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008年07月01日	updated Time_of_Introduction
2008年07月01日	Sean Eidemiller	Cigital
2008年07月01日	added/updated demonstrative examples
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2008年04月11日	Plaintext Storage in Cookie
2013年07月17日	Plaintext Storage in a Cookie

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Page Last Updated: September 09, 2025

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