1132
[REF-6]Katrina Tsipenyuk, Brian Chess and Gary McGraw. "Seven Pernicious Kingdoms: A
Taxonomy of Software Security Errors". NIST Workshop on Software Security Assurance Tools
Techniques and Metrics. 2005 November 7. NIST. < https://samate.nist.gov/SSATTM_Content/
papers/Seven%20Pernicious%20Kingdoms%20-%20Taxonomy%20of%20Sw%20Security
%20Errors%20-%20Tsipenyuk%20-%20Chess%20-%20McGraw.pdf >.
CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference
Weakness ID : 476
Structure : Simple
Abstraction : Base
Description
A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to
be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit.
Extended Description
NULL pointer dereference issues can occur through a number of flaws, including race conditions,
and simple programming omissions.
Relationships
The table(s) below shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this
weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOr and give insight to
similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such
as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that may want to be explored.
Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (CWE-1000)
Nature Type ID Name Page
ChildOf 754 Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions 1568
ChildOf 710 Improper Adherence to Coding Standards 1549
CanFollow 252 Unchecked Return Value 606
CanFollow 789 Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value 1674
CanFollow 1325 Improperly Controlled Sequential Memory Allocation 2210
Relevant to the view "Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published
Vulnerabilities" (CWE-1003)
Nature Type ID Name Page
ChildOf 754 Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions 1568
Relevant to the view "Software Development" (CWE-699)
Nature Type ID Name Page
MemberOf 465 Pointer Issues 2328
Weakness Ordinalities
Resultant : NULL pointer dereferences are frequently resultant from rarely encountered
error conditions, since these are most likely to escape detection during the testing phases.
Applicable Platforms
Language : C (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Language : C++ (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Language : Java (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Language : C# (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Language : Go (Prevalence = Undetermined)
CWE Version 4.14
CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference
CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference