Description

While adding general comments is very useful, some programmers tend to leave important data, such as: filenames related to the web application, old links or links which were not meant to be browsed by users, old code fragments, etc.

An attacker who finds these comments can map the application’s structure and files, expose hidden parts of the site, and study the fragments of code to reverse engineer the application, which may help develop further attacks against the site.

Modes of Introduction:

– Implementation

Related Weaknesses

CWE-540
CWE-546

Consequences

Confidentiality: Read Application Data

Potential Mitigations

Phase: Distribution

Description: 

Remove comments which have sensitive information about the design/implementation of the application. Some of the comments may be exposed to the user and affect the security posture of the application.

CVE References

• CVE-2007-6197
  • Version numbers and internal hostnames leaked in HTML comments.

• CVE-2007-4072
  • CMS places full pathname of server in HTML comment.

• CVE-2009-2431
  • blog software leaks real username in HTML comment.