CWE-191Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound)

Description

The product subtracts one value from another, such that the result is less than the minimum allowable integer value, which produces a value that is not equal to the correct result.

This can happen in signed and unsigned cases.

Common consequences

• Availability→DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart,DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU),DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory),DoS: Instability
  This 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 Memory
  If 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 Mechanism
  This 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.

Related CWEs

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