이름: Context Switching Race Condition

A product performs a series of non-atomic actions to switch between contexts that cross privilege or other security boundaries, but a race condition allows an attacker to modify or misrepresent the product's behavior during the switch.

CWE 설명

This is commonly seen in web browser vulnerabilities in which the attacker can perform certain actions while the browser is transitioning from a trusted to an untrusted domain, or vice versa, and the browser performs the actions on one domain using the trust level and resources of the other domain.

일반 정보

취약점 도입 방식

Architecture and Design
Implementation

적용 가능한 플랫폼

언어

클래스: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

기술

클래스: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined)

일반적인 결과

범위	영향	가능성
Integrity Confidentiality	Modify Application Data, Read Application Data

관찰된 예시

참고 자료	설명
CVE-2009-1837	Chain: race condition (CWE-362) from improper handling of a page transition in web client while an applet is loading (CWE-368) leads to use after free (CWE-416)
CVE-2004-2260	Browser updates address bar as soon as user clicks on a link instead of when the page has loaded, allowing spoofing by redirecting to another page using onUnload method. this is one example of the role of "hooks" and context switches, and should be captured somehow - also a race condition of sorts
CVE-2004-0191	XSS when web browser executes Javascript events in the context of a new page while it's being loaded, allowing interaction with previous page in different domain.
CVE-2004-2491	Web browser fills in address bar of clicked-on link before page has been loaded, and doesn't update afterward.

탐지 방법

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.)

취약점 매핑 메모

근거 : 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.
댓글 : 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.

관련 공격 패턴

CAPEC ID	공격 패턴 이름
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.
CAPEC-29	Leveraging Time-of-Check and Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Conditions This attack targets a race condition occurring between the time of check (state) for a resource and the time of use of a resource. A typical example is file access. The adversary can leverage a file access race condition by "running the race", meaning that they would modify the resource between the first time the target program accesses the file and the time the target program uses the file. During that period of time, the adversary could replace or modify the file, causing the application to behave unexpectedly.

메모

Can overlap signal handler race conditions.
Under-studied as a concept. Frequency unknown; few vulnerability reports give enough detail to know when a context switching race condition is a factor.

참고 자료

REF-44

24 Deadly Sins of Software Security
Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, John Viega.

제출

이름	조직	날짜	출시일	Version
PLOVER		2006-07-19 +00:00	2006-07-19 +00:00	Draft 3

수정 사항

이름	조직	날짜	댓글
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	2009-07-27 +00:00	updated Description, Other_Notes, Relationship_Notes, Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2010-12-13 +00:00	updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2011-06-01 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-05-11 +00:00	updated References, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2014-07-30 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2017-11-08 +00:00	updated Applicable_Platforms
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2020-02-24 +00:00	updated Relationships
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 Applicable_Platforms, Detection_Factors

CWE-368 상세 정보

CWE-368