| Name | Session Credential Falsification through Prediction |
| Summary | This attack targets predictable session ID in order to gain privileges. The attacker can predict the session ID used during a transaction to perform spoofing and session hijacking. |
| Prerequisites | The target host uses session IDs to keep track of the users.
Session IDs are used to control access to resources.
The session IDs used by the target host are predictable. For example, the session IDs are generated using predictable information (e.g., time). |
| Solutions | Use a strong source of randomness to generate a session ID.
Use adequate length session IDs
Do not use information available to the user in order to generate session ID (e.g., time).
Ideas for creating random numbers are offered by Eastlake [RFC1750]
Encrypt the session ID if you expose it to the user. For instance session ID can be stored in a cookie in encrypted format. |
| Related Weaknesses |
| CWE ID | Description |
| CWE-6 | J2EE Misconfiguration: Insufficient Session-ID Length |
| CWE-200 | Information Exposure |
| CWE-285 | Improper Authorization |
| CWE-290 | Authentication Bypass by Spoofing |
| CWE-330 | Use of Insufficiently Random Values |
| CWE-331 | Insufficient Entropy |
| CWE-346 | Origin Validation Error |
| CWE-384 | Session Fixation |
| CWE-488 | Exposure of Data Element to Wrong Session |
| CWE-539 | Information Exposure Through Persistent Cookies |
| CWE-693 | Protection Mechanism Failure |
| CWE-719 | OWASP Top Ten 2007 Category A8 - Insecure Cryptographic Storage |
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