CWE
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CWE-676 Individual Dictionary Definition (Draft 9)

Use of Potentially Dangerous Function
Weakness ID
Status: Draft

676 (Weakness Base)

Description

Summary

The program invokes a potentially dangerous function that could introduce a vulnerability if it is used incorrectly, but the function can also be used safely.

Likelihood of Exploit

High

Weakness Ordinality

Primary (Weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)

Causal Nature

Explicit (This is an explicit weakness resulting from behavior of the developer)

Context Notes

This weakness is different than CWE-242 (Use of Inherently Dangerous Function). CWE-242 covers functions with such significant security problems that they can never be guaranteed to be safe. Some functions, if used properly, do not directly pose a security risk, but can introduce a weakness if not called correctly. These areregarded as potentially dangerous. A well-known example is the strcpy() function. When provided with a destination buffer that is larger than its source, strcpy() will not overflow. However, it is so often misused that some developers prohibit strcpy() entirely.

Relationships
NatureTypeIDName
ChildOfWeakness ClassWeakness ClassWeakness Class573Failure to Follow Specification
Source Taxonomies

7 Pernicious Kingdoms - Dangerous Functions

Applicable Platforms

C

C++

Page Last Updated: April 22, 2008