CWE-778: Insufficient Logging

When security-critical events are not logged properly, such as a failed login attempt, this can make malicious behavior more difficult to detect and may hinder forensic analysis after an attack succeeds.

As organizations adopt cloud storage resources, these technologies often require configuration changes to enable detailed logging information, since detailed logging can incur additional costs. This could lead to telemetry gaps in critical audit logs. For example, in Azure, the default value for logging is disabled.

Architecture and Design

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Class: Cloud Computing (Undetermined Prevalence)

Class: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

The example below shows a configuration for the service security audit feature in the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

The configuration file has effectively disabled the recording of security-critical events, which would force the administrator to look to other sources during debug or recovery efforts.

Logging failed authentication attempts can warn administrators of potential brute force attacks. Similarly, logging successful authentication events can provide a useful audit trail when a legitimate account is compromised. The following configuration shows appropriate settings, assuming that the site does not have excessive traffic, which could fill the logs if there are a large number of success or failure events ( CWE-779 ).

In the following Java example the code attempts to authenticate the user. If the login fails a retry is made. Proper restrictions on the number of login attempts are of course part of the retry functionality. Unfortunately, the failed login is not recorded and there would be no record of an adversary attempting to brute force the program.

It is recommended to log the failed login action. Note that unneutralized usernames should not be part of the log message, and passwords should never be part of the log message.

Consider this command for updating Azure's Storage Logging for Blob service, adapted from [ REF-1307 ]:

The "--log d" portion of the command says to log deletes. However, the argument does not include the logging of writes and reads. Adding the "rw" arguments to the -log parameter will fix the issue:

To enable Azure's storage analytic logs programmatically using PowerShell:

Notice that here, the retention has been limited to 5 days.

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.

Automated Static Analysis