CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-40454

Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

Published: Oct 13, 2021 | Modified: Aug 01, 2023
CVSS 3.x
5.5
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
2.1 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

Rich Text Edit Control Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Weakness

The product stores sensitive information in cleartext within a resource that might be accessible to another control sphere.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
365_apps Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Office Microsoft 2013-sp1 (including) 2013-sp1 (including)
Office Microsoft 2013_rt-sp1 (including) 2013_rt-sp1 (including)
Office Microsoft 2016 (including) 2016 (including)
Office Microsoft 2019 (including) 2019 (including)
Office Microsoft 2021 (including) 2021 (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft 20h2 (including) 20h2 (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft 21h1 (including) 21h1 (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft 1607 (including) 1607 (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft 1809 (including) 1809 (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft 1909 (including) 1909 (including)
Windows_10 Microsoft 2004 (including) 2004 (including)
Windows_11 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_8.1 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_rt_8.1 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_server Microsoft 20h2 (including) 20h2 (including)
Windows_server Microsoft 2004 (including) 2004 (including)
Windows_server_2012 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_server_2012 Microsoft r2 (including) r2 (including)
Windows_server_2016 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_server_2019 Microsoft - (including) - (including)
Windows_server_2022 Microsoft * *

Extended Description

Because the information is stored in cleartext (i.e., unencrypted), attackers could potentially read it. Even if the information is encoded in a way that is not human-readable, certain techniques could determine which encoding is being used, then decode the information. When organizations adopt cloud services, it can be easier for attackers to access the data from anywhere on the Internet. In some systems/environments such as cloud, the use of “double encryption” (at both the software and hardware layer) might be required, and the developer might be solely responsible for both layers, instead of shared responsibility with the administrator of the broader system/environment.

Potential Mitigations

References