CWE-227: Failure to Fulfill API Contract ('API Abuse')
Failure to Fulfill API Contract ('API Abuse')
Weakness ID: 227 (Weakness Class)
Status: Draft
Description
Description Summary
The software uses an API in a manner contrary to its intended
use.
Extended Description
An API is a contract between a caller and a callee. The most common forms
of API misuse are caused by the caller failing to honor its end of this
contract. For example, if a program fails to call chdir() after calling
chroot(), it violates the contract that specifies how to change the active
root directory in a secure fashion. Another good example of library abuse is
expecting the callee to return trustworthy DNS information to the caller. In
this case, the caller misuses the callee API by making certain assumptions
about its behavior (that the return value can be used for authentication
purposes). One can also violate the caller-callee contract from the other
side. For example, if a coder subclasses SecureRandom and returns a
non-random value, the contract is violated.
Description
