Description

The program contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop.

Extended Description

If the loop can be influenced by an attacker, this weakness could allow attackers to consume excessive resources such as CPU or memory.

Applicable Platforms
Language Class: Language-independent

Common Consequences

Detection Methods
None

Potential Mitigations
None

Relationships

Demonstrative Examples   (Details)

1. For this example the method isReorderNeeded as part of a bookstore application that determines if a particular book needs to be reordered based on the current inventory count and the rate at which the book is being sold.
2. In the following code the method processMessagesFromServer attempts to establish a connection to a server and read and process messages from the server. The method uses a do/while loop to continue trying to establish the connection to the server when an attempt fails.

Observed Examples

1. CVE-2011-1027 : Chain: off-by-one error leads to infinite loop using invalid hex-encoded characters.
2. CVE-2011-1142 : Chain: self-referential values in recursive definitions lead to infinite loop.
3. CVE-2011-1002 : NULL UDP packet is never cleared from a queue, leading to infinite loop.
4. CVE-2010-4476 : Floating point conversion routine cycles back and forth between two different values.
5. CVE-2010-4645 : Floating point conversion routine cycles back and forth between two different values.
6. CVE-2010-2534 : Chain: improperly clearing a pointer in a linked list leads to infinite loop.

White Box Definitions
None

Black Box Definitions
None

Taxynomy Mappings
None

References:

1. Mark Dowd John McDonald Justin Schuh .The Art of Software Security Assessment 1st Edition. Addison Wesley. Section:'Chapter 7, "Looping Constructs", Page 327.'. Published on 2006.