May 6, 2024 at 09:44AM
CISA urges the software industry to eliminate directory traversal vulnerabilities, which allow users to access and manipulate data. Exploits can lead to data theft and system compromise, posing a heightened threat to critical organizations including healthcare and cloud services. CISA recommends specific mitigations such as using ransom identifiers for files and limiting characters in file names.
From the meeting notes, it is evident that CISA is urging the software industry to address the issue of directory traversal vulnerabilities, which have been exploited in recent high-profile incidents. The vulnerabilities allow unauthorized access to data, posing risks such as data theft and system compromise. CISA emphasized the need for software manufacturers to treat user-supplied content as potentially malicious and to implement effective mitigations. These include using ransom identifiers for file naming and storing metadata separately, as well as limiting the types of characters allowed in file names and removing executable permissions from uploaded files. It was also noted that CISA has previously focused on eliminating default passwords and SQL injection vulnerabilities, and has advocated for moving away from memory-unsafe languages towards more secure alternatives.