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Sensitive data read from GET request

ID: js/sensitive-get-query
Kind: problem
Security severity: 6.5
Severity: warning
Precision: high
Tags:
   - security
   - external/cwe/cwe-598
Query suites:
   - javascript-code-scanning.qls
   - javascript-security-extended.qls
   - javascript-security-and-quality.qls

Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository

Sensitive information such as user passwords should not be transmitted within the query string of the requested URL. Sensitive information within URLs may be logged in various locations, including the user’s browser, the web server, and any forward or reverse proxy servers between the two endpoints. URLs may also be displayed on-screen, bookmarked or emailed around by users. They may be disclosed to third parties via the Referer header when any off-site links are followed. Placing sensitive information into the URL therefore increases the risk that it will be captured by an attacker.

Recommendation

Use HTTP POST to send sensitive information as part of the request body; for example, as form data.

Example

The following example shows two route handlers that both receive a username and a password. The first receives this sensitive information from the query parameters of a GET request, which is transmitted in the URL. The second receives this sensitive information from the request body of a POST request.

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use(require('body-parser').urlencoded({ extended: false }))

// bad: sensitive information is read from query parameters
app.get('/login1', (req, res) => {
    const user = req.query.user;
    const password = req.query.password;
    if (checkUser(user, password)) {
        res.send('Welcome');
    } else {
        res.send('Access denied');
    }
});

// good: sensitive information is read from post body
app.post('/login2', (req, res) => {
    const user = req.body.user;
    const password = req.body.password;
    if (checkUser(user, password)) {
        res.send('Welcome');
    } else {
        res.send('Access denied');
    }
});

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