CWE-823 Detail

CWE-823

Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset
Incomplete
2010-09-27
00h00 +00:00
2025-12-11
00h00 +00:00
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Rimani informato su qualsiasi modifica relativa a un CWE specifico.
Gestione notifiche

Nome: Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset

The product performs pointer arithmetic on a valid pointer, but it uses an offset that can point outside of the intended range of valid memory locations for the resulting pointer.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Implementation

Piattaforme applicabili

Linguaggio

Class: Memory-Unsafe (Undetermined)
Name: C (Undetermined)
Name: C++ (Undetermined)

Conseguenze comuni

Ambito Impatto Probabilità
ConfidentialityRead Memory

Note: If the untrusted pointer is used in a read operation, an attacker might be able to read sensitive portions of memory.
AvailabilityDoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Note: If the untrusted pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the program, or points to a location that is "malformed" or larger than expected by a read or write operation, the application may terminate unexpectedly.
Integrity
Confidentiality
Availability
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Modify Memory

Note: If the untrusted pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible.

Esempi osservati

Riferimenti Descrizione

CVE-2010-2160

Invalid offset in undocumented opcode leads to memory corruption.

CVE-2010-1281

Multimedia player uses untrusted value from a file when using file-pointer calculations.

CVE-2009-3129

Spreadsheet program processes a record with an invalid size field, which is later used as an offset.

CVE-2009-2694

Instant messaging library does not validate an offset value specified in a packet.

CVE-2009-2687

Language interpreter does not properly handle invalid offsets in JPEG image, leading to out-of-bounds memory access and crash.

CVE-2009-0690

negative offset leads to out-of-bounds read

CVE-2008-4114

untrusted offset in kernel

CVE-2010-2873

"blind trust" of an offset value while writing heap memory allows corruption of function pointer,leading to code execution

CVE-2010-2866

negative value (signed) causes pointer miscalculation

CVE-2010-2872

signed values cause incorrect pointer calculation

CVE-2007-5657

values used as pointer offsets

CVE-2010-2867

a return value from a function is sign-extended if the value is signed, then used as an offset for pointer arithmetic

CVE-2009-1097

portions of a GIF image used as offsets, causing corruption of an object pointer.

CVE-2008-1807

invalid numeric field leads to a free of arbitrary memory locations, then code execution.

CVE-2007-2500

large number of elements leads to a free of an arbitrary address

CVE-2008-1686

array index issue (CWE-129) with negative offset, used to dereference a function pointer

CVE-2010-2878

"buffer seek" value - basically an offset?

Detection Methods

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.)
Effectiveness : 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].
Effectiveness : Moderate

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.
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.

Pattern di attacco correlati

CAPEC-ID Nome del pattern di attacco
CAPEC-129 Pointer Manipulation
This attack pattern involves an adversary manipulating a pointer within a target application resulting in the application accessing an unintended memory location. This can result in the crashing of the application or, for certain pointer values, access to data that would not normally be possible or the execution of arbitrary code. Since pointers are simply integer variables, Integer Attacks may often be used in Pointer Attacks.

Note

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.

Riferimenti

REF-62

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

REF-1518

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

Invio

Nome Organizzazione Data Data di rilascio Version
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-09-22 +00:00 2010-09-27 +00:00 1.10

Modifiche

Nome Organizzazione Data Commento
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-06-20 +00:00 updated Related_Attack_Patterns
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 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 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