CWE-363 Details

CWE-363

Race Condition Enabling Link Following
Draft
2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00
2025-12-11
00h00 +00:00
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Name: Race Condition Enabling Link Following

The product checks the status of a file or directory before accessing it, which produces a race condition in which the file can be replaced with a link before the access is performed, causing the product to access the wrong file.

CWE-Beschreibung

While developers might expect that there is a very narrow time window between the time of check and time of use, there is still a race condition. An attacker could cause the product to slow down (e.g. with memory consumption), causing the time window to become larger. Alternately, in some situations, the attacker could win the race by performing a large number of attacks.

Allgemeine Informationen

Einführungsmodi

Architecture and Design
Implementation

Anwendbare Plattformen

Sprache

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Häufige Konsequenzen

Bereich Auswirkung Wahrscheinlichkeit
Confidentiality
Integrity
Read Files or Directories, Modify Files or Directories

Erkennungsmethoden

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Hinweise zur Schwachstellen-Zuordnung

Begründung : This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Kommentar : Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Verwandte Angriffsmuster

CAPEC-ID Name des Angriffsmusters
CAPEC-26 Leveraging Race Conditions
The adversary targets a race condition occurring when multiple processes access and manipulate the same resource concurrently, and the outcome of the execution depends on the particular order in which the access takes place. The adversary can leverage a race condition by "running the race", modifying the resource and modifying the normal execution flow. For instance, a race condition can occur while accessing a file: the adversary can trick the system by replacing the original file with their version and cause the system to read the malicious file.

Hinweise

This is already covered by the "Link Following" weakness (CWE-59). It is included here because so many people associate race conditions with link problems; however, not all link following issues involve race conditions.

Referenzen

REF-62

The Art of Software Security Assessment
Mark Dowd, John McDonald, Justin Schuh.

Einreichung

Name Organisation Datum Veröffentlichungsdatum Version
PLOVER 2006-07-19 +00:00 2006-07-19 +00:00 Draft 3

Änderungen

Name Organisation Datum Kommentar
Eric Dalci Cigital 2008-07-01 +00:00 updated Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-09-08 +00:00 updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-10-14 +00:00 updated Description, Other_Notes, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-11-24 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-12-13 +00:00 updated Other_Notes, Relationship_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-03-29 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, References, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-07-30 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-01-03 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-01-31 +00:00 updated Description
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-12-11 +00:00 updated Detection_Factors, Weakness_Ordinalities