429
Nature Type ID Name Page
MemberOf 137 Data Neutralization Issues 2311
Relevant to the view "Seven Pernicious Kingdoms" (CWE-700)
Nature Type ID Name Page
ChildOf 20 Improper Input Validation 20
Weakness Ordinalities
Resultant :
Applicable Platforms
Language : C (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Language : C++ (Prevalence = Undetermined)
Likelihood Of Exploit
Medium
Common Consequences
Scope Impact Likelihood
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
Read Memory
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
The case of an omitted null character is the most
dangerous of the possible issues. This will almost certainly
result in information disclosure, and possibly a buffer
overflow condition, which may be exploited to execute
arbitrary code.
Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Read Memory
DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)
DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
If a null character is omitted from a string, then most stringcopying
functions will read data until they locate a null
character, even outside of the intended boundaries of the
string. This could: cause a crash due to a segmentation
fault cause sensitive adjacent memory to be copied and
sent to an outsider trigger a buffer overflow when the copy
is being written to a fixed-size buffer.
Integrity
Availability
Modify Memory
DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Misplaced null characters may result in any number of
security problems. The biggest issue is a subset of buffer
overflow, and write-what-where conditions, where data
corruption occurs from the writing of a null character over
valid data, or even instructions. A randomly placed null
character may put the system into an undefined state,
and therefore make it prone to crashing. A misplaced null
character may corrupt other data in memory.
Integrity
Confidentiality
Availability
Access Control
Other
Alter Execution Logic
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Should the null character corrupt the process flow, or affect
a flag controlling access, it may lead to logical errors which
allow for the execution of arbitrary code.
Detection Methods
CWE Version 4.14
CWE-170: Improper Null Termination
CWE-170: Improper Null Termination