CWE-497 Base Incompleto

Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere

This vulnerability occurs when an application unintentionally reveals sensitive details about its underlying system, such as file paths, software versions, or environment data, to users who should…

Definición

What is CWE-497?

This vulnerability occurs when an application unintentionally reveals sensitive details about its underlying system, such as file paths, software versions, or environment data, to users who should not have access to that information.
Applications, especially web apps, run on top of complex systems like operating servers. When they generate errors, debug logs, or even normal responses, they can leak technical details—stack traces, installed packages, directory structures, or server banners. Attackers actively seek out this information to map your system's architecture and identify specific software versions with known exploits, making their attacks far more precise and dangerous. Preventing these leaks requires scrutinizing all output channels, from error messages to API headers and log files, to ensure they are sanitized before reaching an end-user. While SAST tools can flag patterns of information disclosure, managing this at scale across a large codebase is challenging. An ASPM like Plexicus helps by continuously monitoring for these exposures in production and development, using AI to prioritize the risk and suggest specific code fixes to harden your system's responses.
Impacto en el mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-497

  • CVE-2021-32638

    Code analysis product passes access tokens as a command-line parameter or through an environment variable, making them visible to other processes via the ps command.

Cómo lo explotan los atacantes

Ruta del atacante paso a paso

  1. 1

    The following code prints the path environment variable to the standard error stream:

  2. 2

    This code prints all of the running processes belonging to the current user.

  3. 3

    If invoked by an unauthorized web user, it is providing a web page of potentially sensitive information on the underlying system, such as command-line arguments (CWE-497). This program is also potentially vulnerable to a PATH based attack (CWE-426), as an attacker may be able to create malicious versions of the ps or grep commands. While the program does not explicitly raise privileges to run the system commands, the PHP interpreter may by default be running with higher privileges than users.

  4. 4

    The following code prints an exception to the standard error stream:

  5. 5

    Depending upon the system configuration, this information can be dumped to a console, written to a log file, or exposed to a remote user. In some cases the error message tells the attacker precisely what sort of an attack the system will be vulnerable to. For example, a database error message can reveal that the application is vulnerable to a SQL injection attack. Other error messages can reveal more oblique clues about the system. In the example above, the search path could imply information about the type of operating system, the applications installed on the system, and the amount of care that the administrators have put into configuring the program.

Ejemplo de código vulnerable

Vulnerable C

The following code prints the path environment variable to the standard error stream:

Vulnerable C 
char* path = getenv("PATH");
  ...
  sprintf(stderr, "cannot find exe on path %s\n", path);
Ejemplo de código seguro

Secure pseudo

Seguro pseudo 
// Validate, sanitize, or use a safe API before reaching the sink.
function handleRequest(input) {
  const safe = validateAndEscape(input);
  return executeWithGuards(safe);
}
What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.
Lista de prevención

How to prevent CWE-497

  • Architecture and Design / Implementation Production applications should never use methods that generate internal details such as stack traces and error messages unless that information is directly committed to a log that is not viewable by the end user. All error message text should be HTML entity encoded before being written to the log file to protect against potential cross-site scripting attacks against the viewer of the logs
Señales de detección

How to detect CWE-497

Automated Static Analysis High

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.)

Auto-corrección de Plexicus

Plexicus detecta automáticamente CWE-497 y abre un PR de corrección en menos de 60 segundos.

Codex Remedium escanea cada commit, identifica esta debilidad concreta y entrega un pull request listo para revisión con el parche. Sin tickets. Sin traspasos.

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Preguntas frecuentes

Frequently asked questions

¿Qué es CWE-497?

This vulnerability occurs when an application unintentionally reveals sensitive details about its underlying system, such as file paths, software versions, or environment data, to users who should not have access to that information.

¿Qué gravedad tiene CWE-497?

MITRE no ha publicado una calificación de probabilidad de explotación para esta debilidad. Trátala como de impacto medio hasta que tu modelo de amenazas demuestre lo contrario.

¿Qué lenguajes o plataformas se ven afectados por CWE-497?

MITRE no ha especificado plataformas afectadas para esta CWE — puede aplicar a la mayoría de los stacks de aplicaciones.

¿Cómo puedo prevenir CWE-497?

Production applications should never use methods that generate internal details such as stack traces and error messages unless that information is directly committed to a log that is not viewable by the end user. All error message text should be HTML entity encoded before being written to the log file to protect against potential cross-site scripting attacks against the viewer of the logs

¿Cómo detecta y corrige Plexicus CWE-497?

El motor SAST de Plexicus detecta la firma de flujo de datos para CWE-497 en cada commit. Cuando hay coincidencia, nuestro agente Codex Remedium abre un PR de corrección con el código corregido, las pruebas y un resumen de una línea para el revisor.

¿Dónde puedo aprender más sobre CWE-497?

MITRE publica la definición canónica en https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/497.html. También puedes consultar la documentación de OWASP y NIST para guías relacionadas.

Debilidades relacionadas

Weaknesses related to CWE-497

CWE-200 Padre

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

This weakness occurs when an application unintentionally reveals sensitive data to someone who shouldn't have access to it.

CWE-1258 Hermano

Exposure of Sensitive System Information Due to Uncleared Debug Information

This vulnerability occurs when hardware fails to erase sensitive data like cryptographic keys and intermediate values before entering…

CWE-1273 Hermano

Device Unlock Credential Sharing

This vulnerability occurs when the secret keys or passwords required to unlock a device's hidden features are shared between multiple…

CWE-1295 Hermano

Debug Messages Revealing Unnecessary Information

The product's debug messages or logs expose excessive internal system details, potentially revealing sensitive information that could aid…

CWE-1431 Hermano

Driving Intermediate Cryptographic State/Results to Hardware Module Outputs

This vulnerability occurs when a hardware cryptographic module leaks sensitive internal data through its output channels. Instead of only…

CWE-201 Hermano

Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data

This vulnerability occurs when an application sends data to an external party, but accidentally includes sensitive information—like…

CWE-203 Hermano

Observable Discrepancy

This vulnerability occurs when an application responds differently to unauthorized users based on internal conditions. Attackers can…

CWE-209 Hermano

Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

This vulnerability occurs when an application reveals sensitive details about its internal systems, user data, or environment within error…

CWE-213 Hermano

Exposure of Sensitive Information Due to Incompatible Policies

This vulnerability occurs when a system's data handling aligns with the developer's security rules but accidentally reveals information…

Recursos

Further reading

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