CWE

Common Weakness Enumeration

A community-developed list of SW & HW weaknesses that can become vulnerabilities

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Home > CWE List > CWE-410: Insufficient Resource Pool (4.16)  
ID

CWE-410: Insufficient Resource Pool

Weakness ID: 410
Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - 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's resource pool is not large enough to handle peak demand, which allows an attacker to prevent others from accessing the resource by using a (relatively) large number of requests for resources.
+ Extended Description
Frequently the consequence is a "flood" of connection or sessions.
+ 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.
Scope Impact Likelihood
Availability
Integrity
Other

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Other

Floods often cause a crash or other problem besides denial of the resource itself; these are likely examples of *other* vulnerabilities, not an insufficient resource pool.
+ Potential Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

Do not perform resource-intensive transactions for unauthenticated users and/or invalid requests.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Consider implementing a velocity check mechanism which would detect abusive behavior.

Phase: Operation

Consider load balancing as an option to handle heavy loads.

Phase: Implementation

Make sure that resource handles are properly closed when no longer needed.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Identify the system's resource intensive operations and consider protecting them from abuse (e.g. malicious automated script which runs the resources out).
+ Relationships
Section Help 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 Pillar Pillar - 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. 664 Improper Control of a Resource Through its Lifetime
CanPrecede Class 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. 400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Section Help 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 Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 399 Resource Management Errors
+ Modes Of Introduction
Section HelpThe 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
Architecture and Design
Implementation
Operation
+ Applicable Platforms
Section HelpThis 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

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

+ Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

In the following snippet from a Tomcat configuration file, a JDBC connection pool is defined with a maximum of 5 simultaneous connections (with a 60 second timeout). In this case, it may be trivial for an attacker to instigate a denial of service (DoS) by using up all of the available connections in the pool.

(bad code)
Example Language: XML 
<Resource name="jdbc/exampledb"
auth="Container"
type="javax.sql.DataSource"
removeAbandoned="true"
removeAbandonedTimeout="30"
maxActive="5"
maxIdle="5"
maxWait="60000"
username="testuser"
password="testpass"
driverClassName="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
url="jdbc:mysql://localhost/exampledb"/>

+ Observed Examples
Reference Description
Large number of locks on file exhausts the pool and causes crash.
Product supports only one connection and does not disconnect a user who does not provide credentials.
Large number of connections without providing credentials allows connection exhaustion.
+ 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.
Nature Type ID Name
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 730 OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A9 - Denial of Service
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 855 The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) Chapter 12 - Thread Pools (TPS)
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 977 SFP Secondary Cluster: Design
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1145 SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 11. Thread Pools (TPS)
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1416 Comprehensive Categorization: Resource Lifecycle Management
+ Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage: ALLOWED

(this CWE ID may 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
PLOVER Insufficient Resource Pool
OWASP Top Ten 2004 A9 CWE More Specific Denial of Service
The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) TPS00-J Use thread pools to enable graceful degradation of service during traffic bursts
+ References
[REF-7] Michael Howard and David LeBlanc. "Writing Secure Code". Chapter 17, "Protecting Against Denial of Service Attacks" Page 517. 2nd Edition. Microsoft Press. 2002-12-04. <https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/writing-secure-code-9780735617223>.
+ Content History
+ Submissions
Submission Date Submitter Organization
2006-07-19
(CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)
PLOVER
+ Modifications
Modification Date Modifier Organization
2008-07-01 Sean Eidemiller Cigital
added/updated demonstrative examples
2008-07-01 Eric Dalci Cigital
updated Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Other_Notes, Taxonomy_Mappings
2008-10-14 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Description, Relationships
2009-07-27 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Demonstrative_Examples
2009-10-29 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Common_Consequences
2010-02-16 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated References
2011-06-01 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2012-05-11 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2012-10-30 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Potential_Mitigations
2014-06-23 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Other_Notes, Potential_Mitigations
2014-07-30 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Applicable_Platforms, Functional_Areas, References
2018-03-27 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated References
2019-01-03 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2020-02-24 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2023-01-31 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Description
2023-04-27 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2023-06-29 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
Page Last Updated: November 19, 2024