CWE-561 Detail

CWE-561

Dead Code
2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00
Draft
2026-10-28
00h00 +00:00
CWE Mitre.org
Notifiche per un CWE specifico
Rimani informato su qualsiasi modifica relativa a un CWE specifico.
Gestione notifiche

Nome: Dead Code

The product contains dead code, which can never be executed.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Implementation

Piattaforme applicabili

Linguaggio

Classe: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Conseguenze comuni

Ambito Impatto Probabilità
OtherQuality Degradation

Nota: Dead code that results from code that can never be executed is an indication of problems with the source code that needs to be fixed and is an indication of poor quality.
OtherReduce Maintainability
OtherVaries by Context, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands

Nota: In some cases, dead code can be reachable or exploitable by attackers after they exploit another weakness or vulnerability that can access the code. For example, some buffer overflow exploits could modify addresses to point to locations that contain dead code.

Esempi osservati

Riferimenti Descrizione

CVE-2014-1266

Chain: incorrect "goto" in Apple SSL product bypasses certificate validation, allowing Adversary-in-the-Middle (AITM) attack (Apple "goto fail" bug). CWE-705 (Incorrect Control Flow Scoping) -> CWE-561 (Dead Code) -> CWE-295 (Improper Certificate Validation) -> CWE-393 (Return of Wrong Status Code) -> CWE-300 (Channel Accessible by Non-Endpoint). The code's whitespace indentation did not reflect the actual control flow (CWE-1114) and did not explicitly delimit the block (CWE-483), which could have made it more difficult for human code auditors to detect the vulnerability.

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Implementation
Remove dead code before deploying the application.

Detection Methods

Architecture or Design Review

Effectiveness : High

Automated Static Analysis - Binary or Bytecode

Effectiveness : High

Dynamic Analysis with Manual Results Interpretation

Effectiveness : SOAR Partial

Automated Static Analysis

Effectiveness : SOAR Partial

Automated Static Analysis - Source Code

Effectiveness : High

Dynamic Analysis with Automated Results Interpretation

Effectiveness : SOAR Partial

Manual Static Analysis - Source Code

Effectiveness : High

Note sulla mappatura delle vulnerabilità

Giustificazione : 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. However, the term "dead code" might have multiple interpretations.
Commento : 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.

Note



Riferimenti

REF-960

Automated Source Code Maintainability Measure (ASCMM)
Object Management Group (OMG).
https://www.omg.org/spec/ASCMM/

REF-1479

State-of-the-Art Resources (SOAR) for Software Vulnerability Detection, Test, and Evaluation
Gregory Larsen, E. Kenneth Hong Fong, David A. Wheeler, Rama S. Moorthy.
https://www.ida.org/-/media/feature/publications/s/st/stateoftheart-resources-soar-for-software-vulnerability-detection-test-and-evaluation/p-5061.ashx

REF-1534

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

Invio

Nome Organizzazione Data Data di rilascio Version
Anonymous Tool Vendor (under NDA) 2006-07-19 +00:00 2006-07-19 +00:00 Draft 3

Modifiche

Nome Organizzazione Data Commento
Eric Dalci Cigital 2008-07-01 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-09-08 +00:00 updated Description, Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2008-11-24 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-05-27 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-07-27 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-10-29 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Other_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-09-13 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-10-30 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-06-23 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-07-30 +00:00 updated Detection_Factors, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-01-03 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-06-20 +00:00 updated Type
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Observed_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-08-20 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-03-15 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-07-20 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-01-31 +00:00 updated Description
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated References, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2024-02-29 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-09-09 +00:00 updated Detection_Factors, References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-12-11 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2026-04-30 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2026-10-28 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Description, Mapping_Notes, References, Relationships, Technical_Nuance, Terminology_Notes
Le informazioni presentate su CVE Find provengono da diverse fonti di riferimento attentamente selezionate. I dati CVE sono forniti da MITRE Corporation e dal National Vulnerability Database (NVD). Il catalogo delle vulnerabilità sfruttate conosciute (KEV) proviene dalla Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), mentre i punteggi EPSS provengono da FIRST.org. Inoltre, i dati relativi alle vulnerabilità software (CWE) e ai pattern di attacco comuni (CAPEC) sono mantenuti da MITRE Corporation, e le informazioni sulle configurazioni hardware e software (CPE) sono fornite da NVD.