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Common Weakness Enumeration

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Home > CWE List > CWE-799: Improper Control of Interaction Frequency (4.16)  
ID

CWE-799: Improper Control of Interaction Frequency

Weakness ID: 799
Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review (with careful review of mapping notes)
Abstraction: 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.
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+ Description
The product 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.
+ 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
Access Control
Other

Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Other); Bypass Protection Mechanism; Other

+ 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. 691 Insufficient Control Flow Management
ParentOf 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. 307 Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
ParentOf 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. 837 Improper Enforcement of a Single, Unique Action
+ 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 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 Language:
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) {
isValidUser = AuthenticateUser(username, password);
}
}
}
return(SUCCESS);

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 Language:
int count = 0;
while ((isValidUser == 0) && (count < MAX_ATTEMPTS)) {
if (getNextMessage(socket, username, USERNAME_SIZE) > 0) {
if (getNextMessage(socket, password, PASSWORD_SIZE) > 0) {
isValidUser = AuthenticateUser(username, password);
}
}
count++;
}
if (isValidUser) {
return(SUCCESS);
}
else {
return(FAIL);
}

+ Observed Examples
Reference Description
Mail server allows attackers to prevent other users from accessing mail by sending large number of rapid requests.
+ Weakness Ordinalities
Ordinality Description
Primary
(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)
+ 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. 808 2010 Top 25 - Weaknesses On the Cusp
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1348 OWASP Top Ten 2021 Category A04:2021 - Insecure Design
MemberOf CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. 1410 Comprehensive Categorization: Insufficient Control Flow Management
+ Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage: ALLOWED-WITH-REVIEW

(this CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review)

Reason: Abstraction

Rationale:

This CWE entry is a Class and might have Base-level children that would be more appropriate

Comments:

Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit
+ Taxonomy Mappings
Mapped Taxonomy Name Node ID Fit Mapped Node Name
WASC 21 Insufficient Anti-Automation
+ References
[REF-731] Web Application Security Consortium. "Insufficient Anti-automation". <http://projects.webappsec.org/Insufficient+Anti-automation>.
+ Content History
+ Submissions
Submission Date Submitter Organization
2010-01-15
(CWE 1.8, 2010-02-16)
CWE Content Team MITRE
New entry to handle anti-automation as identified in WASC.
+ Modifications
Modification Date Modifier Organization
2010-04-05 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Demonstrative_Examples
2011-03-29 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Observed_Examples, Relationships
2011-06-01 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Common_Consequences
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Demonstrative_Examples
2020-02-24 CWE Content Team MITRE
updated Relationships
2021-10-28 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