Reachable AssertionID: 617 | Date: (C)2012-05-14 (M)2022-10-10 |
Type: weakness | Status: DRAFT |
Abstraction Type: Variant |
Description
The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can
be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other
behavior that is more severe than necessary.
Extended DescriptionFor example, if a server handles multiple simultaneous connections, and an
assert() occurs in one single connection that causes all other connections
to be dropped, this is a reachable assertion that leads to a denial of
service.
Applicable PlatformsNone
Time Of Introduction
Common Consequences
Scope | Technical Impact | Notes |
---|
Availability | DoS: crash / exit /
restart | An attacker that can trigger an assert statement can crash the
application or cause a denial of service. |
Detection MethodsNone
Potential Mitigations
Phase | Strategy | Description | Effectiveness | Notes |
---|
Implementation | | Make sensitive open/close operation non reachable by directly
user-controlled data (e.g. open/close resources) | | |
Implementation | Input Validation | Perform input validation on user data. | | |
Relationships
Related CWE | Type | View | Chain |
---|
CWE-617 ChildOf CWE-887 | Category | CWE-888 | |
Demonstrative Examples (Details)
- In the excerpt below, an AssertionError (an unchecked exception) is
thrown if the user hasn't entered an email address in an HTML
form.
Observed Examples
- CVE-2006-6767 : FTP server allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon abort) via crafted commands which trigger an assertion failure.
- CVE-2006-6811 : Chat client allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a long message string when connecting to a server, which causes an assertion failure.
- CVE-2006-5779 : Product allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via LDAP BIND requests with long authcid names, which triggers an assertion failure.
- CVE-2006-4095 : Product allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via certain queries, which cause an assertion failure.
- CVE-2006-4574 : Chain: security monitoring product has an off-by-one error that leads to unexpected length values, triggering an assertion.
For more examples, refer to CVE relations in the bottom box.
White Box Definitions None
Black Box Definitions None
Taxynomy Mappings
Taxynomy | Id | Name | Fit |
---|
CERT Java Secure Coding | MET01-J | Never use assertions to validate method
arguments | |
References:None