A6 Sensitive Data Exposure

Sensitive data deserves extra protection such as encryption at rest or in transit. Failing to do that is known as sensitive data exposure.

Which data needs extra protection?

• Username & Password
• Debit/Credit Card Information
• Personal Data

Possible Attack:

• At Rest: If data is in rest, i.e. saved in database and strong cryptography is not applied then if any attacker will get access to the database (like using SQLi) he/she can easily see sensitive data.
• In Transit: If communication is not encrypted, then any attacker can listen it (using Man in the Middle attack / using Packet sniffer) and can see sensitive data.

Impact on Security:

1. Attack on Confidentiality

Detectability   : Average

Exploitability  : Difficult

Impact           : Severe

How to mitigate:

1. Don't store sensitive data unnecessarily.
2. Ensure strong standard algorithm and strong key are used.
3. Ensure proper key management is in place.
4. Ensure passwords are stored with an algorithm specially designed for password protection (like bcrypt, PBKDF2, scrypt).
5. Disable autocomplete on forms collecting sensitive data and disable caching for pages that contain sensitive data.