CWE-799: Improper Control of Interaction Frequency
Improper Control of Interaction Frequency
Weakness ID: 799 (Weakness Class)
Status: Incomplete
Description
Description Summary
The software does not properly limit the number or frequency of interactions that it has with an actor, such as the number of incoming requests.
Extended Description
This can allow the actor to perform actions more frequently than expected. The actor could be a human or an automated process such as a virus or bot. This could be used to cause a denial of service, compromise program logic (such as limiting humans to a single vote), or other consequences. For example, an authentication routine might not limit the number of times an attacker can guess a password. Or, a web site might conduct a poll but only expect humans to vote a maximum of once a day.
Alternate Terms
Insufficient anti-automation:
The term "insufficient anti-automation" focuses primarly on non-human
actors such as viruses or bots, but the scope of this CWE entry is
broader.
Brute force:
Vulnerabilities that can be targeted using brute force attacks are
often symptomatic of this weakness.
Time of Introduction
Architecture and Design
Implementation
Operation
Applicable Platforms
Languages
Language-independent
Common Consequences
Scope
Effect
Availability
Access Control
Other
Technical Impact: DoS: resource consumption
(other); Bypass protection
mechanism; Other
Demonstrative Examples
Example 1
In the following code a username and password is read from a socket
and an attempt is made to authenticate the username and password. The code
will continuously checked the socket for a username and password until it
has been authenticated.
(Bad Code)
Example Languages: C and C++
char username[USERNAME_SIZE];
char password[PASSWORD_SIZE];
while (isValidUser == 0) {
if (getNextMessage(socket, username, USERNAME_SIZE) > 0)
{
if (getNextMessage(socket, password, PASSWORD_SIZE) >
0) {
This code does not place any restriction on the number of
authentication attempts made. There should be a limit on the number of
authentication attempts made to prevent brute force attacks as in the
following example code.
(Good Code)
Example Languages: C and C++
int count = 0;
while ((isValidUser == 0) && (count < MAX_ATTEMPTS))
{
if (getNextMessage(socket, username, USERNAME_SIZE) > 0)
{
if (getNextMessage(socket, password, PASSWORD_SIZE) >
0) {
Description
