CWE-754 Detail

CWE-754

Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
Gemiddeld
Incomplete
2009-03-10
00h00 +00:00
2025-12-11
00h00 +00:00
Meldingen voor een CWE
Blijf op de hoogte van wijzigingen voor een specifieke CWE.
Meldingen beheren

Naam: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions

The product does not check or incorrectly checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that are not expected to occur frequently during day to day operation of the product.

Algemene informatie

Achtergrondinformatie

Introductiemodi

Implementation : REALIZATION: This weakness is caused during implementation of an architectural security tactic.

Toepasselijke platforms

Taal

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Technologieën

Class: Not Technology-Specific (Undetermined)

Veelvoorkomende gevolgen

Bereik Impact Waarschijnlijkheid
Integrity
Availability
DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, Unexpected State

Note: The data which were produced as a result of a function call could be in a bad state upon return. If the return value is not checked, then this bad data may be used in operations, possibly leading to a crash or other unintended behaviors.

Waargenomen voorbeelden

Referenties Beschrijving

CVE-2023-49286

Chain: function in web caching proxy does not correctly check a return value (CWE-253) leading to a reachable assertion (CWE-617)

CVE-2007-3798

Unchecked return value leads to resultant integer overflow and code execution.

CVE-2006-4447

Program does not check return value when invoking functions to drop privileges, which could leave users with higher privileges than expected by forcing those functions to fail.

CVE-2006-2916

Program does not check return value when invoking functions to drop privileges, which could leave users with higher privileges than expected by forcing those functions to fail.

Mogelijke risicobeperkingen

Phases : Requirements
Phases : Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is expected.
Phases : Implementation
If using exception handling, catch and throw specific exceptions instead of overly-general exceptions (CWE-396, CWE-397). Catch and handle exceptions as locally as possible so that exceptions do not propagate too far up the call stack (CWE-705). Avoid unchecked or uncaught exceptions where feasible (CWE-248).
Phases : Implementation
Phases : Implementation
Phases : Architecture and Design // Implementation
If the program must fail, ensure that it fails gracefully (fails closed). There may be a temptation to simply let the program fail poorly in cases such as low memory conditions, but an attacker may be able to assert control before the software has fully exited. Alternately, an uncontrolled failure could cause cascading problems with other downstream components; for example, the program could send a signal to a downstream process so the process immediately knows that a problem has occurred and has a better chance of recovery.
Phases : Architecture and Design
Use system limits, which should help to prevent resource exhaustion. However, the product should still handle low resource conditions since they may still occur.

Detectiemethoden

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis may be useful for detecting unusual conditions involving system resources or common programming idioms, but not for violations of business rules.
Effectiviteit : Moderate

Manual Dynamic Analysis

Identify error conditions that are not likely to occur during normal usage and trigger them. For example, run the program under low memory conditions, run with insufficient privileges or permissions, interrupt a transaction before it is completed, or disable connectivity to basic network services such as DNS. Monitor the software for any unexpected behavior. If you trigger an unhandled exception or similar error that was discovered and handled by the application's environment, it may still indicate unexpected conditions that were not handled by the application itself.

Notities kwetsbaarheidsmapping

Rechtvaardiging : This CWE entry is a Class and might have Base-level children that would be more appropriate
Opmerking : Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit

Notities

Sometimes, when a return value can be used to indicate an error, an unchecked return value is a code-layer instance of a missing application-layer check for exceptional conditions. However, return values are not always needed to communicate exceptional conditions. For example, expiration of resources, values passed by reference, asynchronously modified data, sockets, etc. may indicate exceptional conditions without the use of a return value.

Referenties

REF-62

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

REF-62

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

REF-44

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

REF-622

Top 25 Series - Rank 15 - Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
Frank Kim.
https://www.sans.org/blog/top-25-series-rank-15-improper-check-for-unusual-or-exceptional-conditions/

Indiening

Naam Organisatie Datum Releasedatum Version
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-03-03 +00:00 2009-03-10 +00:00 1.3

Wijzigingen

Naam Organisatie Datum Opmerking
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-07-27 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2009-12-28 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Likelihood_of_Exploit, Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-02-16 +00:00 updated Background_Details, Common_Consequences, Demonstrative_Examples, Description, Detection_Factors, Name, Observed_Examples, Potential_Mitigations, References, Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationship_Notes, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-04-05 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, Related_Attack_Patterns
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-06-21 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Detection_Factors, Potential_Mitigations, References
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-09-27 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2010-12-13 +00:00 updated Relationship_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-03-29 +00:00 updated Description, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-01 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-06-27 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-09-13 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-05-11 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2012-10-30 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2013-02-21 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-07-30 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2015-12-07 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-01-19 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Modes_of_Introduction, References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-01-03 +00:00 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-06-20 +00:00 updated Description, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-06-25 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-12-10 +00:00 updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-03-15 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-07-20 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2022-04-28 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-01-31 +00:00 updated Description, Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-06-29 +00:00 updated Mapping_Notes
CWE Content Team MITRE 2024-02-29 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team MITRE 2024-07-16 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2025-12-11 +00:00 updated Applicable_Platforms, Relationships, Weakness_Ordinalities