CWE-20Improper Input Validation

Description

Common consequences· 3

• Availability — DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
  An attacker could provide unexpected values and cause a program crash or arbitrary control of resource allocation, leading to excessive consumption of resources such as memory and CPU.
• Confidentiality — Read Memory, Read Files or Directories
  An attacker could read confidential data if they are able to control resource references.
• Integrity / Confidentiality / Availability — Modify Memory, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
  An attacker could use malicious input to modify data or possibly alter control flow in unexpected ways, including arbitrary command execution.

Potential mitigations· 5

• [Architecture and Design]Consider using language-theoretic security (LangSec) techniques that characterize inputs using a formal language and build "recognizers" for that language. This effectively requires parsing to be a distinct layer that effectively enforces a boundary between raw input and internal data representations, instead of allowing parser code to be scattered throughout the program, where it could be subject to errors or inconsistencies that create weaknesses. [REF-1109] [REF-1110] [REF-1111]
• [Architecture and Design]Use an input validation framework such as Struts or the OWASP ESAPI Validation API. Note that using a framework does not automatically address all input validation problems; be mindful of weaknesses that could arise from misusing the framework itself (CWE-1173).
• [Architecture and Design, Implementation]Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter the product, including but not limited to: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide data to the application. Remember that such inputs may be obtained indirectly through API calls.
• [Implementation]
• [Architecture and Design]

Related CAPEC attack patterns· 51

Exploits (incoming)37

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Compliance frameworks addressing this (incoming)25

(incoming)88

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Related by meaning· 6

Nearest entities by semantic similarity across the cs-graph corpus.