CWE-116Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output

Description

The product prepares a structured message for communication with another component, but encoding or escaping of the data is either missing or done incorrectly. As a result, the intended structure of the message is not preserved.

[object Object]

Common consequences

• Integrity→Modify Application Data
  The communications between components can be modified in unexpected ways. Unexpected commands can be executed, bypassing other security mechanisms. Incoming data can be misinterpreted.
• Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control→Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
  The communications between components can be modified in unexpected ways. Unexpected commands can be executed, bypassing other security mechanisms. Incoming data can be misinterpreted.
• Confidentiality→Bypass Protection Mechanism
  The communications between components can be modified in unexpected ways. Unexpected commands can be executed, bypassing other security mechanisms. Incoming data can be misinterpreted.

Potential mitigations

• Architecture and Design
  [object Object]
• Architecture and Design
  [object Object]
• Architecture and Design,Implementation
  Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages. Study all expected communication protocols and data representations to determine the required e
• Architecture and Design
  In some cases, input validation may be an important strategy when output encoding is not a complete solution. For example, you may be providing the same output that will be processed by multiple consumers that use different encodings or representations. In other cases, you may be required to allow user-supplied input to contain control information, such as limited HTML tags that support formatting
• Architecture and Design
  Use input validation as a defense-in-depth measure to reduce the likelihood of output encoding errors (see CWE-20).
• Requirements
  Fully specify which encodings are required by components that will be communicating with each other.
• Implementation
  When exchanging data between components, ensure that both components are using the same character encoding. Ensure that the proper encoding is applied at each interface. Explicitly set the encoding you are using whenever the protocol allows you to do so.

Related CWEs

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