CWE-326 Inadequate Encryption Strength

Description

Inadequate Encryption Strength

Reference: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/326.html

OWASP Category: A02:2021 – Cryptographic Failures

Vulnerable Pattern

❌ Example 1

    public ResponseEntity<GenericVulnerabilityResponseBean<String>> getVulnerablePayloadLevel2(
            @RequestParam Map<String, String> queryParams) {
        String password = queryParams.get(PASSWORD_PARAM);

        if (password == null || password.isEmpty()) {
            return new ResponseEntity<>(
                    new GenericVulnerabilityResponseBean<>(
                            "CHALLENGE: A user's password is stored as SHA1 hash: "
                                    + LEVEL2_HASH
                                    + " — Crack it and enter the original password!",
                            false),
                    HttpStatus.OK);
        }

        String guessHash = DigestUtils.sha1Hex(password);
        if (guessHash.equals(LEVEL2_HASH)) {
            return new ResponseEntity<>(
                    new GenericVulnerabilityResponseBean<>(
                            "Correct! The password was '"
                                    + LEVEL2_SECRET
                                    + "'. SHA1 is deprecated — it is vulnerable to collision"
                                    + " attacks and hashes can be reversed using rainbow tables.",
                            true),
                    HttpStatus.OK);
        } else {
        // ... (truncated for brevity)

Deterministic Fix

✅ Secure Implementation

    public ResponseEntity<GenericVulnerabilityResponseBean<String>> getVulnerablePayloadLevel4(
            @RequestParam Map<String, String> queryParams) {
        String password = queryParams.get(PASSWORD_PARAM);

        if (password == null || password.isEmpty()) {
            return new ResponseEntity<>(
                    new GenericVulnerabilityResponseBean<>(
                            "CHALLENGE: The system 'encrypts' passwords using Base64 encoding. "
                                    + "The stored password is: "
                                    + LEVEL4_ENCODED
                                    + " — Decode it and enter the original password!",
                            false),
                    HttpStatus.OK);
        }

        if (password.equals(LEVEL4_SECRET)) {
            return new ResponseEntity<>(
                    new GenericVulnerabilityResponseBean<>(
                            "Correct! The password was '"
                                    + LEVEL4_SECRET
                                    + "'. Base64 is an encoding, NOT encryption."
                                    + " It provides zero security — anyone can decode it instantly.",
                            true),
                    HttpStatus.OK);
        } else {
        // ... (truncated for brevity)

Detection Pattern

Look for these patterns in your codebase:

# Find key size specifications
grep -rn "KeyGenerator\|KeyPairGenerator" --include="*.java" | grep -E "[0-9]+"

# Find weak key sizes
grep -rn "512\|1024" --include="*.java" | grep -i key

Remediation Steps

Use RSA keys of at least 2048 bits (preferably 4096)
Use AES-256 instead of AES-128
Use strong key derivation functions (PBKDF2, Argon2)
Ensure sufficient iterations in key derivation

Key Imports


import javax.crypto.KeyGenerator;

import java.security.KeyPairGenerator;

import javax.crypto.SecretKeyFactory;

Verification

After remediation:

Re-run SAST scan - CWE-326 should be resolved
Verify RSA keys are >= 2048 bits
Verify AES keys are >= 128 bits (256 preferred)

Trigger Examples

Fix CWE-326 vulnerability
Resolve Inadequate Encryption Strength issue
Secure this Java code against inadequate encryption strength
SAST reports CWE-326

Common Vulnerable Locations

Layer	Files	Patterns

| Security | *Crypto*.java | Key generation |

| Configuration | *Config.java | Security config |

References

Source: Generated by Java CWE Security Skills Generator Last Updated: 2026-03-07

cwe-326-inadequate-encryption-strength