Improper Output Neutralization for Logs

[my-veracode]

Description:

This call to org.apache.log4j.Category.info() could result in a log forging attack. Writing untrusted data into a log file allows an attacker to forge log entries or inject malicious content into log files. Corrupted log files can be used to cover an attacker's tracks or as a delivery mechanism for an attack on a log viewing or processing utility. For example, if a web administrator uses a browser-based utility to review logs, a cross-site scripting attack might be possible. The first argument to info() contains tainted data. The tainted data originated from an earlier call to AnnotationVirtualController.vc_annotation_entry.

Avoid directly embedding user input in log files when possible. Sanitize untrusted data used to construct log entries by using a safe logging mechanism such as the OWASP ESAPI Logger, which will automatically remove unexpected carriage returns and line feeds and can be configured to use HTML entity encoding for non-alphanumeric data. Alternatively, some of the XSS escaping functions from the OWASP Java Encoder project will also sanitize CRLF sequences. Only create a custom blocklist when absolutely necessary. Always validate untrusted input to ensure that it conforms to the expected format, using centralized data validation routines when possible.

• Veracode issue ID: 249
• Severity: Medium
• Location: com/veracode/verademo/controller/BlabController.java:558
• Issue found on build: 11171357
• Issue first found at: Tue, 05 Jan 2021 04:12:30 GMT
• Scanner: Veracode Static Application Security Testing

Identifiers:

• CWE
• OWASP
• WASC
• Supported Cleansers