UI Misrepresentation of Critical Information
Weakness ID: 451 (Weakness Base)Status: Draft
+ Description

Description Summary

The UI does not properly represent critical information to the user, allowing the information - or its source - to be obscured or spoofed. This is often a component in phishing attacks.
+ Time of Introduction
  • Architecture and Design
  • Implementation
+ Applicable Platforms

Languages

All

+ Observed Examples
ReferenceDescription
CVE-2001-0398Attachment with many spaces in filename bypasses "dangerous content" warning and uses different icon. Likely resultant.
CVE-2001-0643Misrepresentation and equivalence issue.
CVE-2005-0593Lock spoofing from several different Weaknesses.
CVE-2005-0143Wrong status / state notifier -- Lock icon displayed when an insecure page loads a binary file loaded from a trusted site.
CVE-2005-0144Wrong status / state notifier -- Secure "lock" icon is presented for one channel, while an insecure page is being simultaneously loaded in another channel.
CVE-2004-0761Wrong status / state notifier -- Certain redirect sequences cause security lock icon to appear in web browser, even when page is not encrypted.
CVE-2004-2219Wrong status / state notifier -- Spoofing via multi-step attack that causes incorrect information to be displayed in browser address bar.
CVE-2004-0537Overlay -- Wide "favorites" icon can overlay and obscure address bar
OSVDB:5703Overlay -- GUI overlay vulnerability (misrepresentation)
CVE-2005-2271Visual distinction -- Web browsers do not clearly associate a Javascript dialog box with the web page that generated it, allowing spoof of the source of the dialog. "origin validation error" of a sort?
CVE-2005-2272Visual distinction -- Web browsers do not clearly associate a Javascript dialog box with the web page that generated it, allowing spoof of the source of the dialog. "origin validation error" of a sort?
CVE-2005-2273Visual distinction -- Web browsers do not clearly associate a Javascript dialog box with the web page that generated it, allowing spoof of the source of the dialog. "origin validation error" of a sort?
CVE-2005-2274Visual distinction -- Web browsers do not clearly associate a Javascript dialog box with the web page that generated it, allowing spoof of the source of the dialog. "origin validation error" of a sort?
CVE-2001-1410Visual distinction -- Browser allows attackers to create chromeless windows and spoof victim's display using unprotected Javascript method.
CVE-2002-0197Visual distinction -- Chat client allows remote attackers to spoof encrypted, trusted messages with lines that begin with a special sequence, which makes the message appear legitimate.
CVE-2005-0831Visual distinction -- Product allows spoofing names of other users by registering with a username containing hex-encoded characters.
CVE-2003-1025Visual truncation -- Special character in URL causes web browser to truncate the user portion of the "user@domain" URL, hiding real domain in the address bar.
CVE-2005-0243Visual truncation -- Chat client does not display long filenames in file dialog boxes, allowing dangerous extensions via manipulations including (1) many spaces and (2) multiple file extensions.
CVE-2005-1575Visual truncation -- Web browser file download type hiding using whitespace.
CVE-2004-2530Visual truncation -- Visual truncation in chat client using whitespace to hide dangerous file extension.
CVE-2005-0590Visual truncation -- Dialog box in web browser allows user to spoof the hostname via a long "user:pass" sequence in the URL, which appears before the real hostname.
OSVDB:6009Visual truncation -- GUI obfuscation (visual truncation) in web browser - obscure URLs using a large amount of whitespace. Note - "visual truncation" covers a couple variants.
CVE-2004-145Visual truncation -- Null character in URL prevents entire URL from being displayed in web browser.
CVE-2004-2258Miscellaneous -- [step-based attack, GUI] -- Password-protected tab can be bypassed by switching to another tab, then back to original tab.
CVE-2005-1678Miscellaneous -- Dangerous file extensions not displayed.
CVE-2002-0722Miscellaneous -- Web browser allows remote attackers to misrepresent the source of a file in the File Download dialogue box.
+ Potential Mitigations

Perform data validation (e.g. syntax, length, etc.) before interpreting the data.

Create a strategy for presenting information, and plan for how to display unusual characters.

+ Other Notes

Overlaps Wheeler's "Semantic Attacks"

Here are some examples of misrepresentation: [*] icon manipulation (making a .EXE look like a .GIF) [*] homographs: letters from different character sets/languages that look similar. The use of homographs is effectively a manipulation of a visual equivalence property. [*] a race condition can cause the UI to present the user with "safe" or "trusted" feedback before the product has fully switched context. The race window could be extended indefinitely if the attacker can trigger an error. [*] "Window injection" vulnerabilities (though these are usually resultant from privilege problems) [*] status line modification (e.g. CVE-2004-1104) [*] various other web browser issues. [*] GUI truncation (e.g. filename with dangerous extension not displayed to GUI because of truncation) - CVE-2004-2227 - GUI truncation enables information hiding [*] injected internal spaces (e.g. "filename.txt .exe" - though this overlaps truncation [*] Also consider DNS spoofing problems - can be used for misrepresentation.

+ Relationships
NatureTypeIDNameView(s) this relationship pertains toView(s)
ChildOfWeakness ClassWeakness Class221Information Loss or Omission
Research Concepts (primary)1000
ChildOfCategoryCategory445User Interface Errors
Development Concepts (primary)699
PeerOfWeakness BaseWeakness Base346Origin Validation Error
Research Concepts1000
+ Research Gaps

Misrepresentation problems are frequently studied in web browsers, but there are no known efforts for categorizing these problems in terms of the shortcomings of the interface. In addition, many misrepresentation issues are resultant.

+ Taxonomy Mappings
Mapped Taxonomy NameNode IDFitMapped Node Name
PLOVERUI Misrepresentation of Critical Information
+ Maintenance Notes

This category needs refinement.

+ Content History
Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganizationSource
PLOVERExternally Mined
Modifications
Modification DateModifierOrganizationSource
2008-07-01Eric DalciCigitalExternal
updated Potential Mitigations, Time of Introduction
2008-09-08CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Maintenance Notes, Relationships, Other Notes, Taxonomy Mappings