CWE-1392: Use of Default Credentials
Official CWE-1392 CWE context with Glexia analysis, remediation guidance, related CVEs, and ATT&CK context.
Glexia's Take
CWE-1392: Use of Default Credentials
Use of Default Credentials represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Executive Impact
- Authentication: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
Developer Pattern
CWE-1392 is the kind of defect developers can usually prevent with explicit validation, safer framework defaults, and tests that exercise hostile input or unsafe state transitions.
Confidence
high confidence from CWE-1392, 4.20.
Official CWE Definition
CWE-1392: Use of Default Credentials
The product uses default credentials (such as passwords or cryptographic keys) for potentially critical functionality.
It is common practice for products to be designed to use default keys, passwords, or other mechanisms for authentication. The rationale is to simplify the manufacturing process or the system administrator's task of installation and deployment into an enterprise. However, if admins do not change the defaults, it is easier for attackers to bypass authentication quickly across multiple organizations.
Developer And Remediation Guidance
How teams prevent and detect this weakness
Causes
- In 2022, the OT:ICEFALL study examined products by 10 different Operational Technology (OT) vendors. The researchers reported 56 vulnerabilities and said that the products were "insecure by design" [REF-1283]. If exploited, these vulnerabilities often allowed adversaries to change how the products operated, ranging from denial of service to changing the code that the products executed. Since these products were often used in industries such as power, electrical, water, and others, there could even be safety implications. At least one OT product used default credentials.
Remediation
- Requirements: Prohibit use of default, hard-coded, or other values that do not vary for each installation of the product - especially for separate organizations.
- Architecture and Design: Force the administrator to change the credential upon installation.
- Installation,Operation: The product administrator could change the defaults upon installation or during operation.
Detection
- Code review
- SAST
- DAST
- Focused regression tests
Mappings
Related CVEs, CWEs, and ATT&CK context
Related CWEs
ATT&CK Relevance
ATT&CK relevance is shown only when reviewed or responsibly inferred.