Nama: Access of Uninitialized Pointer

The product accesses or uses a pointer that has not been initialized.

Informasi Umum

Mode Pengenalan

Implementation

Platform yang Berlaku

Bahasa

Kelas: Memory-Unsafe (Undetermined)
Nama: C (Undetermined)
Nama: C++ (Undetermined)

Konsekuensi Umum

Cakupan	Dampak	Kemungkinan
Confidentiality	Read Memory Catatan: If the uninitialized pointer is used in a read operation, it might not point to a valid memory location. An attacker might be able to read sensitive portions of memory.
Availability	DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart Catatan: If the uninitialized pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the product, or points to a location that is "malformed" (such as NULL) or larger than expected by a read or write operation, then a crash may occur.
Integrity Confidentiality Availability	Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands Catatan: If the uninitialized pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible. If the uninitialized pointer is used as a function call, then arbitrary functions could be invoked.

Contoh yang Diamati

Referensi	Deskripsi
CVE-2024-32878	LLM product has a free of an uninitialized pointer
CVE-2019-3836	Chain: secure communications library does not initialize a local variable for a data structure (CWE-456), leading to access of an uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).
CVE-2018-14641	Chain: C union member is not initialized (CWE-456), leading to access of invalid pointer (CWE-824)
CVE-2010-0211	Chain: unchecked return value (CWE-252) leads to free of invalid, uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).
CVE-2009-2768	Pointer in structure is not initialized, leading to NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476) and system crash.
CVE-2009-1721	Free of an uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2009-1415	Improper handling of invalid signatures leads to free of invalid pointer.
CVE-2009-0846	Invalid encoding triggers free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2009-0040	Crafted PNG image leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2008-2934	Crafted GIF image leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2007-4682	Access of uninitialized pointer might lead to code execution.
CVE-2007-4639	Step-based manipulation: invocation of debugging function before the primary initialization function leads to access of an uninitialized pointer and code execution.
CVE-2007-4000	Unchecked return values can lead to a write to an uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2007-2442	zero-length input causes jump to an error path with cleanup code, but some structures have not been initialized yet, leading to free of an uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2007-1213	Crafted font leads to uninitialized function pointer.
CVE-2006-6143	Uninitialized function pointer in freed memory is invoked
CVE-2006-4175	LDAP server mishandles malformed BER queries, leading to free of uninitialized memory
CVE-2006-0054	Firewall can crash with certain ICMP packets that trigger access of an uninitialized pointer.
CVE-2003-1201	LDAP server does not initialize members of structs, which leads to free of uninitialized pointer if an LDAP request fails.

Metode Deteksi

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.)
Efektivitas : High

Automated Dynamic Analysis

Use tools that are integrated during compilation to insert runtime error-checking mechanisms related to memory safety errors, such as AddressSanitizer (ASan) for C/C++ [REF-1518].
Efektivitas : Moderate

Catatan Pemetaan Kerentanan

Justifikasi : 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.
Komentar : 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.

Catatan

There are close relationships between incorrect pointer dereferences and other weaknesses related to buffer operations. There may not be sufficient community agreement regarding these relationships. Further study is needed to determine when these relationships are chains, composites, perspective/layering, or other types of relationships. As of September 2010, most of the relationships are being captured as chains.
Many weaknesses related to pointer dereferences fall under the general term of "memory corruption" or "memory safety." As of September 2010, there is no commonly-used terminology that covers the lower-level variants.

Referensi

REF-62

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

REF-1518

AddressSanitizer
https://clang.llvm.org/docs/AddressSanitizer.html

REF-1534

Automated Technical Debt Measure, Version 2
OMG.
https://www.omg.org/spec/ATDM2/1.0/PDF

Pengajuan

Nama	Organisasi	Tanggal	Tanggal rilis	Version
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2010-09-22 +00:00	2010-09-27 +00:00	1.10

Modifikasi

Nama	Organisasi	Tanggal	Komentar
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-05-11 +00:00	updated References
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2015-12-07 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2020-02-24 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2020-08-20 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2020-12-10 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2022-04-28 +00:00	updated Research_Gaps
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-01-31 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences, Description
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-04-27 +00:00	updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-06-29 +00:00	updated Mapping_Notes
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2024-07-16 +00:00	updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2025-04-03 +00:00	updated Applicable_Platforms, Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2025-09-09 +00:00	updated Affected_Resources, Functional_Areas
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2025-12-11 +00:00	updated Applicable_Platforms, Detection_Factors, References, Time_of_Introduction, Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2026-10-28 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences, Description, Observed_Examples, References

Detail CWE-824

CWE-824