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CWE Reference

CWE-921: Storage of Sensitive Data in a Mechanism without… | Glexia

CWE-921 (Storage of Sensitive Data in a Mechanism without Access Control) weakness overview with consequences, detection methods, mitigations, related CVEs and…

Release 4.20weaknessIncomplete

Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

CWE-921: Storage of Sensitive Data in a Mechanism without Access Control

Storage of Sensitive Data in a Mechanism without Access Control represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

Executive Impact

  • Confidentiality: Read Application Data,Read Files or Directories: Attackers can read sensitive information by accessing the unrestricted storage mechanism.
  • Integrity: Modify Application Data,Modify Files or Directories: Attackers can modify or delete sensitive information by accessing the unrestricted storage mechanism.

Developer Pattern

CWE-921 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.

Automation confidence

high confidence from CWE-921, 4.20.

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Official CWE Definition

CWE-921: Storage of Sensitive Data in a Mechanism without Access Control

The product stores sensitive information in a file system or device that does not have built-in access control.

Type
weakness
Abstraction
Base
Status
Incomplete
Source
MITRE CWE definition

Developer And Remediation Guidance

How teams prevent and detect this weakness

Causes

  • Missing validation
  • Unsafe defaults
  • Insufficient authorization or memory-safety invariant

Remediation

  • Use safe APIs
  • Centralize the control
  • Add regression tests
  • Review logs and telemetry for attempted abuse

Detection

  • Code review
  • SAST
  • DAST
  • Focused regression tests

Mappings

Related CVEs, CWEs, and ATT&CK context

Related CWEs

Related CVEs

Related CVE mappings appear after CVE records are cross-indexed.

Open CWE CVE mapping

ATT&CK Relevance

ATT&CK relevance is shown only when reviewed or responsibly inferred.