CWE - CWE-107: Struts: Unused Validation Form (3.1)

Weakness ID: 107

Abstraction: Variant
Structure: Simple

Status: Draft

Presentation Filter:

Description

An unused validation form indicates that validation logic is not up-to-date.

Extended Description

It is easy for developers to forget to update validation logic when they remove or rename action form mappings. One indication that validation logic is not being properly maintained is the presence of an unused validation form.

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, MemberOf 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 the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (CWE-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More general than a Base weakness.	710	Improper Adherence to Coding Standards

Relevant to the view "Development Concepts" (CWE-699)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More general than a Base weakness.	20	Improper Input Validation

Relevant to the view "Seven Pernicious Kingdoms" (CWE-700)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More general than a Base weakness.	20	Improper Input Validation

Modes Of Introduction

The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the software life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Implementation
Operation

Applicable Platforms

The listings below show possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages

Java (Undetermined Prevalence)

Common Consequences

The table below specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Other	Technical Impact: Quality Degradation

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

In the following example the class RegistrationForm is a Struts framework ActionForm Bean that will maintain user input data from a registration webpage for an online business site. The user will enter registration data and, through the Struts framework, the RegistrationForm bean will maintain the user data in the form fields using the private member variables. The RegistrationForm class uses the Struts validation capability by extending the ValidatorForm class and including the validation for the form fields within the validator XML file, validator.xml.

(bad code)

Example Language: Java

public class RegistrationForm extends org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorForm {

// private variables for registration form
private String name;
private String address;
private String city;
private String state;
private String zipcode;
// no longer using the phone form field

// private String phone;
private String email;

public RegistrationForm() {

super();

}

// getter and setter methods for private variables
...

}

(bad code)

Example Language: XML

<form-validation>

</field>
<field property="address" depends="required">

</field>
<field property="city" depends="required">

</field>
<field property="state" depends="required,mask">

<var-name>mask</var-name>
<var-value>[a-zA-Z]{2}</var-value>

</var>

</field>
<field property="zipcode" depends="required,mask">

<var-name>mask</var-name>
<var-value>\d{5}</var-value>

</var>

</field>
<field property="phone" depends="required,mask">

<var-name>mask</var-name>
<var-value>^([0-9]{3})(-)([0-9]{4}|[0-9]{4})$</var-value>

</var>

</field>
<field property="email" depends="required,email">

</field>

</form>

</formset>

</form-validation>

However, the validator XML file, validator.xml, for the RegistrationForm class includes the validation form for the user input form field "phone" that is no longer used by the input form and the RegistrationForm class. Any validation forms that are no longer required should be removed from the validator XML file, validator.xml.

The existence of unused forms may be an indication to attackers that this code is out of date or poorly maintained.

Potential Mitigations

Phase: Implementation

Remove the unused Validation Form from the validation.xml file.

Weakness Ordinalities

Ordinality	Description
Resultant	(where the weakness is typically related to the presence of some other weaknesses)

Memberships

This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	990	SFP Secondary Cluster: Tainted Input to Command

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
7 Pernicious Kingdoms			Struts: Unused Validation Form

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
	7 Pernicious Kingdoms

Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2008-07-01	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008-07-01	updated Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008-09-08	updated Description, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
2010-06-21	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010-06-21	updated Demonstrative_Examples
2011-06-01	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-01	updated Common_Consequences
2011-06-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-27	updated Common_Consequences
2012-05-11	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-05-11	updated Relationships
2012-10-30	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-10-30	updated Potential_Mitigations
2014-07-30	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014-07-30	updated Relationships
2017-11-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-11-08	updated Causal_Nature, Relationships


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Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-107: Struts: Unused Validation Form