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Cleartext storage of sensitive information in an SQLite database

ID: cpp/cleartext-storage-database Kind: path-problem Security severity: 7.5 Severity: warning Precision: medium Tags: - security - external/cwe/cwe-313 Query suites: - cpp-security-extended.qls - cpp-security-and-quality.qls

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Sensitive information that is stored in an unencrypted SQLite database is accessible to an attacker who gains access to the database.

Recommendation

Ensure that if sensitive information is stored in a database then the database is always encrypted.

Example

The following example shows two ways of storing information in an SQLite database. In the ‘BAD’ case, the credentials are simply stored in cleartext. In the ‘GOOD’ case, the database (and thus the credentials) are encrypted.

voidbad(void){constchar*password="cleartext password";sqlite3*credentialsDB;sqlite3_stmt*stmt;if(sqlite3_open("credentials.db",&credentialsDB)==SQLITE_OK){// BAD: database opened without encryption being enabledsqlite3_exec(credentialsDB,"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS creds (password TEXT);",NULL,NULL,NULL);if(sqlite3_prepare_v2(credentialsDB,"INSERT INTO creds(password) VALUES(?)",-1,&stmt,NULL)==SQLITE_OK){sqlite3_bind_text(stmt,1,password,-1,SQLITE_TRANSIENT);sqlite3_step(stmt);sqlite3_finalize(stmt);sqlite3_close(credentialsDB);}}}voidgood(constchar*secretKey){constchar*password="cleartext password";sqlite3*credentialsDB;sqlite3_stmt*stmt;if(sqlite3_open("credentials.db",&credentialsDB)==SQLITE_OK){// GOOD: database encryption enabled:std::stringsetKeyString=std::string("PRAGMA key = '")+secretKey+"'";sqlite3_exec(credentialsDB,setKeyString.c_str(),NULL,NULL,NULL);sqlite3_exec(credentialsDB,"CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS creds (password TEXT);",NULL,NULL,NULL);if(sqlite3_prepare_v2(credentialsDB,"INSERT INTO creds(password) VALUES(?)",-1,&stmt,NULL)==SQLITE_OK){sqlite3_bind_text(stmt,1,password,-1,SQLITE_TRANSIENT);sqlite3_step(stmt);sqlite3_finalize(stmt);sqlite3_close(credentialsDB);}}}

Note that for the ‘GOOD’ example to work we need to provide a secret key. Secure key generation and storage is required.

References

  • M. Dowd, J. McDonald and J. Schuhm, The Art of Software Security Assessment, 1st Edition, Chapter 2 - ‘Common Vulnerabilities of Encryption’, p. 43. Addison Wesley, 2006.

  • M. Howard and D. LeBlanc, Writing Secure Code, 2nd Edition, Chapter 9 - ‘Protecting Secret Data’, p. 299. Microsoft, 2002.

  • Common Weakness Enumeration: CWE-313.

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