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CWE-656

Reliance on Security Through Obscurity

ClassDraftSimple11 CVEs
The product uses a protection mechanism whose strength depends heavily on its obscurity, such that knowledge of its algorithms or key data is sufficient to defeat the mechanism.

Extended description

This reliance on "security through obscurity" can produce resultant weaknesses if an attacker is able to reverse engineer the inner workings of the mechanism. Note that obscurity can be one small part of defense in depth, since it can create more work for an attacker; however, it is a significant risk if used as the primary means of protection.

Common consequences1

  • ConfidentialityIntegrityAvailabilityOtherOther

    The security mechanism can be bypassed easily.

Potential mitigations2

  1. Architecture and Design

    Always consider whether knowledge of your code or design is sufficient to break it. Reverse engineering is a highly successful discipline, and financially feasible for motivated adversaries. Black-box techniques are established for binary analysis of executables that use obfuscation, runtime analysis of proprietary protocols, inferring file formats, and others.

  2. Architecture and Design

    When available, use publicly-vetted algorithms and procedures, as these are more likely to undergo more extensive security analysis and testing. This is especially the case with encryption and authentication.

Relationships5

CVEs referencing this CWE11

CVEDescriptionSeverityEPSSFlagsModified
CVE-2020-10284

No authentication is required to control the robot inside the network, moreso the latest available user manual shows an option that lets the user to add a password to the robot but as in xarm_studio 1.3.0 the option is missing from the menu. Assuming manual control, even by forcefully removing the current operator from an active session.

CRITICAL9.1
1.39%p69
2024-11-21
CVE-2024-9138

Moxa’s cellular routers, secure routers, and network security appliances are affected by a high-severity vulnerability, CVE-2024-9138. This vulnerability involves hard-coded credentials, enabling an authenticated user to escalate privileges and gain root-level access to the system, posing a significant security risk.

HIGH7.2
1.10%p61
2026-04-15
CVE-2024-12297

Moxa’s Ethernet switch is vulnerable to an authentication bypass because of flaws in its authorization mechanism. Although both client-side and back-end server verification are involved in the process, attackers can exploit weaknesses in its implementation. These vulnerabilities may enable brute-force attacks to guess valid credentials or MD5 collision attacks to forge authentication hashes, potentially compromising the security of the device.

NONE
0.83%p53
2026-04-15
CVE-2020-10286

the main user account has restricted privileges but is in the sudoers group and there is not any mechanism in place to prevent sudo su or sudo -i to be run gaining unrestricted access to sensible files, encryption, or issue orders that disrupt robot operation.

HIGH8.8
0.74%p50
2024-11-21
CVE-2020-10277

There is no mechanism in place to prevent a bad operator to boot from a live OS image, this can lead to extraction of sensible files (such as the shadow file) or privilege escalation by manually adding a new user with sudo privileges on the machine.

MEDIUM6.4
0.36%p28
2024-11-21
CVE-2024-5244

TP-Link Omada ER605 Reliance on Security Through Obscurity Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows network-adjacent attackers to access or spoof DDNS messages on affected installations of TP-Link Omada ER605 routers. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. However, devices are vulnerable only if configured to use the Comexe DDNS service. The specific flaw exists within the cmxddnsd executable. The issue results from reliance on obscurity to secure network data. An attacker can leverage this in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code in the context of root. Was ZDI-CAN-22439.

MEDIUM4.2
0.34%p26
2025-08-06
CVE-2025-25983

An issue in Macro-video Technologies Co.,Ltd V380 Pro android application 2.1.44 and V380 Pro android application 2.1.64 allows an attacker to obtain sensitive information via the QE code based sharing component.

LOW3.4
0.26%p17
2025-06-25
CVE-2026-7161

An insufficient encryption vulnerability exists in the Device Authentication functionality of GeoVision GV-IP Device Utility 9.0.5. Listening to broadcast packets can lead to credentials leak. An attacker can listen to broadcast messages to trigger this vulnerability. When interacting with various Geovision devices on the network, the utility may send privileged commands; in order to do so, the username and password of the device need to be provided. In some instances the command is broadcasted over UDP and the username/password are encrypted using a cryptographic protocol that appears to be derivated from Blowfish. However the symmetric key used for the encryption is also included in the packet, and thus the security of the username/password only relies on the "obscurity" of the encryption scheme. An attacker on the same LAN can listen to the broadcast traffic once an admin user interacts with the device, and decrypt the credentials using their own implementation of the algorithm. With this password the attacker would have full control over the device configuration, allowing them to change its ip address or even reset it to factory default.

CRITICAL9.3
0.21%p12
2026-06-15
CVE-2026-42363

An insufficient encryption vulnerability exists in the Device Authentication functionality of GeoVision GV-IP Device Utility 9.0.5. Listening to broadcast packets can lead to credentials leak. An attacker can listen to broadcast messages to trigger this vulnerability. When interacting with various Geovision devices on the network, the utility may send privileged commands; in order to do so, the username and password of the device need to be provided. In some instances the command is broadcasted over UDP and the username/password are encrypted using a cryptographic protocol that appears to be derivated from Blowfish. However the symmetric key used for the encryption is also included in the packet, and thus the security of the username/password only relies on the "obscurity" of the encryption scheme. An attacker on the same LAN can listen to the broadcast traffic once an admin user interacts with the device, and decrypt the credentials using their own implementation of the algorithm. With this password the attacker would have full control over the device configuration, allowing them to change its ip address or even reset it to factory default.

CRITICAL9.3
0.19%p8
2026-05-19
CVE-2025-59093

Exos 9300 instances are using a randomly generated database password to connect to the configured MSSQL server. The password is derived from static random values, which are concatenated to the hostname and a random string that can be read by every user from the registry. This allows an attacker to derive the database password and get authenticated access to the central exos 9300 database as the user Exos9300Common. The user has the roles ExosDialog and ExosDialogDotNet assigned, which are able to read most tables of the database as well as update and insert into many tables.

NONE
0.19%p9
2026-04-15
CVE-2025-7020

An incorrect encryption implementation vulnerability exists in the system log dump feature of BYD's DiLink 3.0 OS (e.g. in the model ATTO3). An attacker with physical access to the vehicle can bypass the encryption of log dumps on the In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) unit's storage. This allows the attacker to access and read system logs containing sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and location data. This vulnerability was introduced in a patch intended to fix CVE-2024-54728.

NONE
0.12%p2
2026-04-15