CWE-291 Detail

CWE-291

Reliance on IP Address for Authentication
High
Incomplete
2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00
2025-04-03
00h00 +00:00
CWE Mitre.org
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Name: Reliance on IP Address for Authentication

The product uses an IP address for authentication.

CWE Description

IP addresses can be easily spoofed. Attackers can forge the source IP address of the packets they send, but response packets will return to the forged IP address. To see the response packets, the attacker has to sniff the traffic between the victim machine and the forged IP address. In order to accomplish the required sniffing, attackers typically attempt to locate themselves on the same subnet as the victim machine. Attackers may be able to circumvent this requirement by using source routing, but source routing is disabled across much of the Internet today. In summary, IP address verification can be a useful part of an authentication scheme, but it should not be the single factor required for authentication.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Architecture and Design : COMMISSION: This weakness refers to an incorrect design related to an architectural security tactic.

Applicable Platforms

Language

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Common Consequences

Scope Impact Likelihood
Access Control
Non-Repudiation		Hide Activities, Gain Privileges or Assume Identity

Note: Malicious users can fake authentication information, impersonating any IP address.

Observed Examples

References Description

CVE-2022-30319

S-bus functionality in a home automation product performs access control using an IP allowlist, which can be bypassed by a forged IP address.

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Architecture and Design
Use other means of identity verification that cannot be simply spoofed. Possibilities include a username/password or certificate.

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : This CWE entry is at the Variant level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comment : 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.

Related Attack Patterns

CAPEC-ID Attack Pattern Name
CAPEC-4 Using Alternative IP Address Encodings
This attack relies on the adversary using unexpected formats for representing IP addresses. Networked applications may expect network location information in a specific format, such as fully qualified domains names (FQDNs), URL, IP address, or IP Address ranges. If the location information is not validated against a variety of different possible encodings and formats, the adversary can use an alternate format to bypass application access control.

References

REF-18

The CLASP Application Security Process
Secure Software, Inc..
https://cwe.mitre.org/documents/sources/TheCLASPApplicationSecurityProcess.pdf

REF-1371

IP address spoofing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address_spoofing

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release Version
CLASP 2006-07-19 +00:00 2006-07-19 +00:00 Draft 3

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-09-08 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-02-16 +00:00 updated Description, Other_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2013-06-23 +00:00 Changed type from composite to weakness.
CWE Content Team MITRE 2013-07-17 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Description, Name, Relationships, Type
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-02-18 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Causal_Nature, Demonstrative_Examples, Modes_of_Introduction, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated References, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-01-31 +00:00 updated Description
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-10-26 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples, References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-04-03 +00:00 updated Relationships
The information presented on CVE Find originates from several carefully selected reference sources. CVE data is provided by MITRE Corporation and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). The Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog is sourced from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), while EPSS scores come from FIRST.org. Additionally, data regarding software weaknesses (CWE) and common attack patterns (CAPEC) is maintained by MITRE Corporation, and information on hardware and software configurations (CPE) is provided by the NVD.