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Status: Draft Weakness ID: 561 (Weakness Variant)Description Summary The software contains dead code, which can never be executed. Extended Description Dead code is source code that can never be executed in a running program. The surrounding code makes it impossible for a section of code to ever be executed. Potential Mitigations Remove dead code before deploying the application. Use a static analysis tool to spot dead code. Demonstrative Examples Example 1: The condition for the second if statement is impossible to satisfy. It requires that the variables be non-null, while on the only path where s can be assigned a non-null value there is a return statement. String s = null; if (b) { s = "Yes"; return; } if (s != null) { Dead(); }
Example 2: In the following class, two private methods call each other, but since neither one is ever invoked from anywhere else, they are both dead code. public class DoubleDead { private void doTweedledee() { doTweedledumb(); } private void doTweedledumb() { doTweedledee(); } public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("running DoubleDead"); } }
(In this case it is a good thing that the methods are dead: invoking either one would cause an infinite loop.) Example 3: The field named glue is not used in the following class. The author of the class has accidentally put quotes around the field name, transforming it into a string constant. public class Dead { String glue; public String getGlue() { return "glue"; } }
Other Notes Dead code can lead to confusion during code maintenance and result in unrepaired vulnerabilities. Relationships
Taxonomy Mappings
Time of Introduction  ImplementationContent History Submissions Anonymous Tool Vendor (under NDA). (Externally Mined) Modifications Eric Dalci. Cigital. 2008-07-01. (External) updated Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction CWE Content Team. MITRE. 2008-09-08. (Internal) updated Description, Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings CWE Content Team. MITRE. 2008-11-24. (Internal) updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings |
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