CWE

Common Weakness Enumeration

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ID

CWE-1077: Floating Point Comparison with Incorrect Operator

Weakness ID: 1077
Abstraction: Variant
Structure: Simple
View customized information:
+ Description
The code performs a comparison such as an equality test between two float (floating point) values, but it uses comparison operators that do not account for the possibility of loss of precision.
+ Extended Description

Numeric calculation using floating point values can generate imprecise results because of rounding errors. As a result, two different calculations might generate numbers that are mathematically equal, but have slightly different bit representations that do not translate to the same mathematically-equal values. As a result, an equality test or other comparison might produce unexpected results.

This issue can prevent the product from running reliably. If the relevant code is reachable by an attacker, then this reliability problem might introduce a vulnerability.

+ Relationships
Section HelpThis table 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)
NatureTypeIDName
ChildOfPillarPillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things.697Incorrect Comparison
Section HelpThis table 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 "Software Development" (CWE-699)
NatureTypeIDName
MemberOfCategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.189Numeric Errors
+ Common Consequences
Section HelpThis table 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.
ScopeImpactLikelihood
Other

Technical Impact: Reduce Reliability

+ Weakness Ordinalities
OrdinalityDescription
Indirect
(where the weakness is a quality issue that might indirectly make it easier to introduce security-relevant weaknesses or make them more difficult to detect)
+ Memberships
Section HelpThis 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.
NatureTypeIDName
MemberOfCategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.1129CISQ Quality Measures (2016) - Reliability
MemberOfCategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.1306CISQ Quality Measures - Reliability
+ Taxonomy Mappings
Mapped Taxonomy NameNode IDFitMapped Node Name
OMG ASCRMASCRM-RLB-9
+ References
[REF-961] Object Management Group (OMG). "Automated Source Code Reliability Measure (ASCRM)". ASCRM-RLB-9. 2016-01. <http://www.omg.org/spec/ASCRM/1.0/>.
[REF-975] Bruce Dawson. "Comparing Floating Point Numbers, 2012 Edition". 2012-02-25. <https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/comparing-floating-point-numbers-2012-edition/>.
+ Content History
+ Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganization
2018-07-02CWE Content TeamMITRE
Entry derived from Common Quality Enumeration (CQE) Draft 0.9.
+ Modifications
Modification DateModifierOrganization
2020-08-20CWE Content TeamMITRE
updated Relationships
2023-01-31CWE Content TeamMITRE
updated Description
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Page Last Updated: January 31, 2023