CWE•Base•Incomplete•2 recent CVEs
CWE-128Wrap-around Error
Description
Wrap around errors occur whenever a value is incremented past the maximum value for its type and therefore "wraps around" to a very small, negative, or undefined value.
Common consequences
- Availability→DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart,DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU),DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory),DoS: InstabilityThis weakness will generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. In the case of overflows involving loop index variables, the likelihood of infinite loops is also high.
- Integrity→Modify MemoryIf the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the wrap around results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.
- Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control→Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands,Bypass Protection MechanismThis weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of a program's implicit security policy.
Potential mitigations
- Requirements specification: The choice could be made to use a language that is not susceptible to these issues.
- Architecture and DesignProvide clear upper and lower bounds on the scale of any protocols designed.
- ImplementationPerform validation on all incremented variables to ensure that they remain within reasonable bounds.