Weakness ID: 215

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.

Description

The product inserts sensitive information into debugging code, which could expose this information if the debugging code is not disabled in production.

Extended Description

When debugging, it may be necessary to report detailed information to the programmer. However, if the debugging code is not disabled when the product is operating in a production environment, then this sensitive information may be exposed to attackers.

Common Consequences

Section Help This table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Impact	Details
Read Application Data	Scope: Confidentiality

Potential Mitigations

Phase(s)	Mitigation
Implementation	Do not leave debug statements that could be executed in the source code. Ensure that all debug information is eradicated before releasing the software.
Architecture and Design	Strategy: 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. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

Phase(s)

Mitigation

Implementation

Do not leave debug statements that could be executed in the source code. Ensure that all debug information is eradicated before releasing the software.

Architecture and Design

Strategy: 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.

Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

Relationships

Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	200	Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
CanFollow	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	489	Active Debug Code

Relevant to the view "Software Development" (View-699)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	199	Information Management Errors

Modes Of Introduction

Section Help The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Implementation

Applicable Platforms

Section Help This listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

The following program changes its behavior based on a debug flag.

(bad code)

Example Language: JSP

<% if (Boolean.getBoolean("debugEnabled")) {

%>
User account number: <%= acctNo %>
<%
} %>

The code writes sensitive debug information to the client browser if the "debugEnabled" flag is set to true .

Selected Observed Examples

Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

Reference	Description
CVE-2004-2268	Password exposed in debug information.
CVE-2002-0918	CGI script includes sensitive information in debug messages when an error is triggered.
CVE-2003-1078	FTP client with debug option enabled shows password to the screen.

Weakness Ordinalities

Ordinality	Description
Primary	(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)

Detection Methods

Method	Details
Automated Static Analysis	Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.) Effectiveness: High

Method

Details

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Effectiveness: High

Memberships

Section Help This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	717	OWASP Top Ten 2007 Category A6 - Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	731	OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A10 - Insecure Configuration Management
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	933	OWASP Top Ten 2013 Category A5 - Security Misconfiguration
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	963	SFP Secondary Cluster: Exposed Data
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1417	Comprehensive Categorization: Sensitive Information Exposure
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1445	OWASP Top Ten 2025 Category A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage	ALLOWED (this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)
Reason	Acceptable-Use
Rationale	This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comments	Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Notes

Relationship

This overlaps other categories.

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
PLOVER			Infoleak Using Debug Information
OWASP Top Ten 2007	A6	CWE More Specific	Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling
OWASP Top Ten 2004	A10	CWE More Specific	Insecure Configuration Management
Software Fault Patterns	SFP23		Exposed Data

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2006-07-19 (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)	PLOVER
2006-07-19 (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2025-12-11 (CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2025-12-11 (CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11)	updated Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities
2023-06-29 (CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-06-29 (CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29)	updated Mapping_Notes
2023-04-27 (CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-04-27 (CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27)	updated Detection_Factors, Relationships, Time_of_Introduction
2023-01-31 (CWE 4.10, 2023-01-31)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-01-31 (CWE 4.10, 2023-01-31)	updated Description
2020-12-10 (CWE 4.3, 2020-12-10)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020-12-10 (CWE 4.3, 2020-12-10)	updated Potential_Mitigations
2020-02-24 (CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020-02-24 (CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24)	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Name, Potential_Mitigations, Relationships, Time_of_Introduction, Type
2017-11-08 (CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-11-08 (CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08)	updated Applicable_Platforms
2014-07-30 (CWE 2.8, 2014-07-31)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014-07-30 (CWE 2.8, 2014-07-31)	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2014-06-23 (CWE 2.7, 2014-06-23)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014-06-23 (CWE 2.7, 2014-06-23)	updated Relationships
2012-10-30 (CWE 2.3, 2012-10-30)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-10-30 (CWE 2.3, 2012-10-30)	updated Potential_Mitigations
2012-05-11 (CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-05-11 (CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15)	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2011-06-01 (CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-01 (CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01)	updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2010-09-27 (CWE 1.10, 2010-09-27)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010-09-27 (CWE 1.10, 2010-09-27)	updated Description, Name, Observed_Examples
2009-05-27 (CWE 1.4, 2009-05-27)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-05-27 (CWE 1.4, 2009-05-27)	updated Demonstrative_Examples
2008-09-08 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008-09-08 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	updated Relationships, Relationship_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
2008-08-15 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)		Veracode
2008-08-15 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	Suggested OWASP Top Ten 2004 mapping
2008-07-01 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	Sean Eidemiller	Cigital
2008-07-01 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	added/updated demonstrative examples
2008-07-01 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008-07-01 (CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	updated Time_of_Introduction
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2020-02-24	Information Exposure Through Debug Information
2010-09-27	Information Leak Through Debug Information