Red Hat Security Advisory: Migration Toolkit for Applications

1. Architecture and Design

   Use regular expressions that do not support backtracking, e.g. by removing nested quantifiers.

2. System Configuration

   Set backtracking limits in the configuration of the regular expression implementation, such as PHP's pcre.backtrack_limit. Also consider limits on execution time for the process.

3. Implementation

   Do not use regular expressions with untrusted input. If regular expressions must be used, avoid using backtracking in the expression.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• File Upload (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)

Attack patterns

• Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Implementation

   Avoid using CRLF as a special sequence.

2. Implementation

   Appropriately filter or quote CRLF sequences in user-controlled input.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
• Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
• Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
• SQL Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
• Injection Prevention in Java (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)

Attack patterns

• Command Delimiters (opens in a new tab)
• Web Server Logs Tampering (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks

   Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

2. Implementation · Architecture and Design

   Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.

3. Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction

   Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
• DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
• Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
• Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
• Deserialization (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
• V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)

Attack patterns

• XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
• DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
• Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
• Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Implementation

   Change the code's logic so that the resource is only closed once. This might require simplifying or refactoring. This fix can be simple to do in small code blocks, but more difficult when multiple closes are buried within complex conditionals.

2. Implementation · Refactoring

   It can be effective to implement a flag that is (1) set when the resource is opened, (2) cleared when it is closed, and (3) checked before closing. This approach can be useful when there are disparate cases in which closes must be performed.

3. Implementation · Refactoring

   When closing a resource, set the resource's associated variable to NULL or equivalent value for the given language. Some APIs will ignore this null value without causing errors.

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Implementation

   Do not use user-controlled data for loop conditions.

2. Implementation

   Perform input validation.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• XML Security (opens in a new tab)
• Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
• V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
• V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Implementation · Input Validation

   Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• XML Security (opens in a new tab)
• Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
• V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
• V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Requirements

   Clearly specify which information should be regarded as private or sensitive, and require that the product offers functionality that allows the user to cleanse the sensitive information from the resource before it is published or exported to other parties.

2. Architecture and Design · Separation of Privilege

   Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.

3. Implementation · Operation · Attack Surface Reduction

   Some tools can automatically analyze documents to redact, strip, or "sanitize" private information, although some human review might be necessary. Tools may vary in terms of which document formats can be processed.

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V8.3.2 (opens in a new tab)

Attack patterns

• Windows ::DATA Alternate Data Stream (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Requirements

   Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.

2. Architecture and Design

   Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.

3. Architecture and Design

   Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V8.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
• V13.4.1 (opens in a new tab)
• V11.1.4 (opens in a new tab)

Attack patterns

• XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
• Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
• Serialized Data Parameter Blowup (opens in a new tab)
• Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
• Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Implementation

   If available, use features of the language or framework that allow specification of allowlists of attributes or fields that are allowed to be modified. If possible, prefer allowlists over denylists.

2. Architecture and Design · Implementation

   If available, use the signing/sealing features of the programming language to assure that deserialized data has not been tainted. For example, a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) could be used to ensure that data has not been modified.

3. Implementation · Input Validation

   For any externally-influenced input, check the input against an allowlist of internal object attributes or fields that are allowed to be modified.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
• Software Supply Chain Security (opens in a new tab)
• Infrastructure as Code (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V5.1.2 (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• File Upload (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• File Upload (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Requirements

   Specify which data in the software should be regarded as sensitive. Consider which types of users should have access to which types of data.

2. Implementation

   Ensure that any possibly sensitive data specified in the requirements is verified with designers to ensure that it is either a calculated risk or mitigated elsewhere.

3. System Configuration

   Setup default error messages so that unexpected errors do not disclose sensitive information.

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
• Logging (opens in a new tab)
• Authorization (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V8.3.4 (opens in a new tab)
• V14.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
• V7.3.3 (opens in a new tab)

Attack patterns

• Choosing Message Identifier (opens in a new tab)
• Exploiting Incorrectly Configured SSL/TLS (opens in a new tab)
• WiFi MAC Address Tracking (opens in a new tab)
• WiFi SSID Tracking (opens in a new tab)
• Cellular Broadcast Message Request (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

1. Architecture and Design · Input Validation

   Avoid making decisions based on names of resources (e.g. files) if those resources can have alternate names.

2. Implementation · Input Validation

   Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.

3. Implementation · Input Validation

   Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).

OWASP Cheat Sheets

• OWASP Authentication (opens in a new tab)

OWASP ASVS 4.0.3

• V2.8.5 (opens in a new tab)
• V2.8.4 (opens in a new tab)
• V9.2.3 (opens in a new tab)

From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).