CWE-374: Passing Mutable Objects to an Untrusted Method
Weakness ID: 374
Vulnerability Mapping:
ALLOWEDThis CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities Abstraction: BaseBase - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.
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Description
The product sends non-cloned mutable data as an argument to a method or function.
Extended Description
The function or method that has been called can alter or delete the mutable data. This could violate assumptions that the calling function has made about its state. In situations where unknown code is called with references to mutable data, this external code could make changes to the data sent. If this data was not previously cloned, the modified data might not be valid in the context of execution.
Common Consequences
This 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.
Scope
Impact
Likelihood
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
Potentially data could be tampered with by another function which should not have been tampered with.
Potential Mitigations
Phase: Implementation
Pass in data which should not be altered as constant or immutable.
Phase: Implementation
Clone all mutable data before passing it into an external function . This is the preferred mitigation. This way, regardless of what changes are made to the data, a valid copy is retained for use by the class.
Relationships
This 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)
Nature
Type
ID
Name
ChildOf
Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.
This 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)
Nature
Type
ID
Name
MemberOf
Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.
The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.
Phase
Note
Implementation
Applicable Platforms
This listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.
Languages
C (Undetermined Prevalence)
C++ (Undetermined Prevalence)
Java (Undetermined Prevalence)
C# (Undetermined Prevalence)
Likelihood Of Exploit
Medium
Demonstrative Examples
Example 1
The following example demonstrates the weakness.
(bad code)
Example Language: C
private:
int foo; complexType bar; String baz; otherClass externalClass;
public:
void doStuff() {
externalClass.doOtherStuff(foo, bar, baz)
}
In this example, bar and baz will be passed by reference to doOtherStuff() which may change them.
Example 2
In the following Java example, the BookStore class manages the sale of books in a bookstore, this class includes the member objects for the bookstore inventory and sales database manager classes. The BookStore class includes a method for updating the sales database and inventory when a book is sold. This method retrieves a Book object from the bookstore inventory object using the supplied ISBN number for the book class, then calls a method for the sales object to update the sales information and then calls a method for the inventory object to update inventory for the BookStore.
(bad code)
Example Language: Java
public class BookStore {
private BookStoreInventory inventory; private SalesDBManager sales; ... // constructor for BookStore public BookStore() {
this.inventory = new BookStoreInventory(); this.sales = new SalesDBManager(); ...
} public void updateSalesAndInventoryForBookSold(String bookISBN) {
// Get book object from inventory using ISBN Book book = inventory.getBookWithISBN(bookISBN); // update sales information for book sold sales.updateSalesInformation(book); // update inventory inventory.updateInventory(book);
} // other BookStore methods ...
} public class Book {
private String title; private String author; private String isbn; // Book object constructors and get/set methods ...
}
However, in this example the Book object that is retrieved and passed to the method of the sales object could have its contents modified by the method. This could cause unexpected results when the book object is sent to the method for the inventory object to update the inventory.
In the Java programming language arguments to methods are passed by value, however in the case of objects a reference to the object is passed by value to the method. When an object reference is passed as a method argument a copy of the object reference is made within the method and therefore both references point to the same object. This allows the contents of the object to be modified by the method that holds the copy of the object reference. [REF-374]
In this case the contents of the Book object could be modified by the method of the sales object prior to the call to update the inventory.
To prevent the contents of the Book object from being modified, a copy of the Book object should be made before the method call to the sales object. In the following example a copy of the Book object is made using the clone() method and the copy of the Book object is passed to the method of the sales object. This will prevent any changes being made to the original Book object.
(good code)
Example Language: Java
... public void updateSalesAndInventoryForBookSold(String bookISBN) {
// Get book object from inventory using ISBN Book book = inventory.getBookWithISBN(bookISBN); // Create copy of book object to make sure contents are not changed Book bookSold = (Book) book.clone(); // update sales information for book sold sales.updateSalesInformation(bookSold); // update inventory inventory.updateInventory(book);
} ...
Memberships
This 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.
Nature
Type
ID
Name
MemberOf
Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.
(this CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)
Reason: Acceptable-Use
Rationale:
This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Comments:
Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.
Taxonomy Mappings
Mapped Taxonomy Name
Node ID
Fit
Mapped Node Name
CLASP
Passing mutable objects to an untrusted method
The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011)
OBJ04-J
Provide mutable classes with copy functionality to safely allow passing instances to untrusted code
Description
This 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.
