ABSTRACT

A missing timestamp can leave a SOAP message open to replay attacks.

EXPLANATION

A Security timestamp indicates a message's freshness. If an attacker intercepts a message retransmits it at a later time, the receiver can reject the replay attack because the timestamp will indicate that the message is stale. Optionally, timestamps can include an expiration attribute which places a hard limit on how long security semantics are valid.

To prevent attackers from tampering with timestamps, timestamps should be signed. Without a signed timestamp, it might be possible to intercept a SOAP message, modify the timestamp, and send the message on without the receiver's knowledge. Under these circumstances, an attacker can potentially trick a recipient into accepting a malicious message.

The following Apache Axis 2 Rampart configuration omits the Timestamp directive from the <items> tag, so the client does not require responses to have timestamps.


<axisconfig name="AxisJava2.0">
...
<parameter name="InflowSecurity">
<action>
<items>Signature Encrypt</items>
...
</axisconfig>

REFERENCES

[1] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2004 - (OWASP 2004) A10 Insecure Configuration Management

[2] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2010 - (OWASP 2010) A6 Security Misconfiguration

[3] Standards Mapping - FIPS200 - (FISMA) CM

[4] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration - (CWE) CWE ID 254

[5] Standards Mapping - Web Application Security Consortium 24 + 2 - (WASC 24 + 2) Insufficient Authentication

[6] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 1.1 - (PCI 1.1) Requirement 6.5.10

[7] Securing SOAP Messages with Rampart Apache Software Foundation