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Common Weakness Enumeration

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ID

CWE CATEGORY: CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 11 - Environment (ENV)

Category ID: 744
Vulnerability Mapping: PROHIBITED This CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
+ Summary
Weaknesses in this category are related to the rules and recommendations in the Environment (ENV) chapter of the CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008).
+ Membership
Nature Type ID Name
MemberOf ViewView - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries). 734 Weaknesses Addressed by the CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008)
HasMember 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. 78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
HasMember 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. 88 Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')
HasMember ClassClass - 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. 119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
HasMember 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. 426 Untrusted Search Path
HasMember VariantVariant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource. 462 Duplicate Key in Associative List (Alist)
HasMember ClassClass - 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. 705 Incorrect Control Flow Scoping
+ Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage: PROHIBITED

(this CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

Reason: Category

Rationale:

This entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been discouraged since 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that can help CWE users with data aggregation, navigation, and browsing. However, they are not weaknesses in themselves.

Comments:

See member weaknesses of this category.
+ Notes

Relationship

In the 2008 version of the CERT C Secure Coding standard, the following rules were mapped to the following CWE IDs:

  • CWE-78 ENV03-C Sanitize the environment when invoking external programs
  • CWE-78 ENV04-C Do not call system() if you do not need a command processor
  • CWE-88 ENV03-C Sanitize the environment when invoking external programs
  • CWE-88 ENV04-C Do not call system() if you do not need a command processor
  • CWE-119 ENV01-C Do not make assumptions about the size of an environment variable
  • CWE-426 ENV03-C Sanitize the environment when invoking external programs
  • CWE-462 ENV02-C Beware of multiple environment variables with the same effective name
  • CWE-705 ENV32-C All atexit handlers must return normally
+ References
[REF-597] Robert C. Seacord. "The CERT C Secure Coding Standard". 1st Edition. Addison-Wesley Professional. 2008-10-14.
+ Content History
+ Submissions
Submission Date Submitter Organization
2008-11-24
(CWE 1.1, 2008-11-24) 		CWE Content Team MITRE
+ Modifications
Modification Date Modifier Organization
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Description, Name, Relationship_Notes
2019-01-03 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Description, Name, References
2023-04-27 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
2023-06-29 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
+ Previous Entry Names
Change Date Previous Entry Name
2017-11-08 CERT C Secure Coding Section 10 - Environment (ENV)
2019-01-03 CERT C Secure Coding (2008 Version) Section 10 - Environment (ENV)
Page Last Updated: April 03, 2025
 

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