CWE-460 Base Borrador Medium likelihood

Improper Cleanup on Thrown Exception

This vulnerability occurs when a program fails to properly restore its state or release resources after an exception is thrown, leaving the application in an inconsistent or unexpected condition.

Definición

What is CWE-460?

This vulnerability occurs when a program fails to properly restore its state or release resources after an exception is thrown, leaving the application in an inconsistent or unexpected condition.
In complex functions or loops, temporary resources like file handles, database connections, or memory allocations often need careful management. When an exception interrupts the normal execution flow, cleanup code that runs during a successful path might be skipped entirely. This leaves resources dangling or data in a partially modified state, which can cause crashes, data corruption, or security issues like information disclosure. Managing this at scale is difficult; an ASPM like Plexicus can help you track and remediate these flaws across your entire stack. While SAST tools can identify risky patterns, Plexicus uses AI to analyze execution paths and suggest specific fixes—such as implementing finally blocks or using try-with-resources constructs—saving hours of manual code review and preventing unstable application behavior.
Impacto en el mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-460

Todavía no hay CVEs públicos enlazados a esta CWE en el catálogo de MITRE.

Cómo lo explotan los atacantes

Ruta del atacante paso a paso

  1. 1

    Identifica una ruta de código que maneje entrada no confiable sin validación.

  2. 2

    Crea un payload que ejercite el comportamiento inseguro — inyección, traversal, overflow o abuso de lógica.

  3. 3

    Envía el payload a través de una solicitud normal y observa la reacción de la aplicación.

  4. 4

    Itera hasta que la respuesta filtre datos, ejecute código del atacante o escale privilegios.

Ejemplo de código vulnerable

Vulnerable Java

The following example demonstrates the weakness.

Vulnerable Java 
public class foo {
  		public static final void main( String args[] ) {
  				boolean returnValue;
  				returnValue=doStuff();
  		}
  		public static final boolean doStuff( ) {
  				boolean threadLock;
  				boolean truthvalue=true;
  				try {
  						while(
```
//check some condition* 
  						) {
  						```
  								threadLock=true; //do some stuff to truthvalue
  								threadLock=false;
  						}
  				}
  				catch (Exception e){
  						System.err.println("You did something bad");
  						if (something) return truthvalue;
  				}
  				return truthvalue;
  		}
  }
Ejemplo de código seguro

Secure pseudo

Seguro pseudo 
// Validate, sanitize, or use a safe API before reaching the sink.
function handleRequest(input) {
  const safe = validateAndEscape(input);
  return executeWithGuards(safe);
}
What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.
Lista de prevención

How to prevent CWE-460

  • Implementation If one breaks from a loop or function by throwing an exception, make sure that cleanup happens or that you should exit the program. Use throwing exceptions sparsely.
Señales de detección

How to detect CWE-460

Automated Static Analysis High

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Auto-corrección de Plexicus

Plexicus detecta automáticamente CWE-460 y abre un PR de corrección en menos de 60 segundos.

Codex Remedium escanea cada commit, identifica esta debilidad concreta y entrega un pull request listo para revisión con el parche. Sin tickets. Sin traspasos.

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Preguntas frecuentes

Frequently asked questions

¿Qué es CWE-460?

This vulnerability occurs when a program fails to properly restore its state or release resources after an exception is thrown, leaving the application in an inconsistent or unexpected condition.

¿Qué gravedad tiene CWE-460?

MITRE califica la probabilidad de explotación como Media — la explotación es realista pero suele requerir condiciones específicas.

¿Qué lenguajes o plataformas se ven afectados por CWE-460?

MITRE lists the following affected platforms: C, C++, Java, C#.

¿Cómo puedo prevenir CWE-460?

If one breaks from a loop or function by throwing an exception, make sure that cleanup happens or that you should exit the program. Use throwing exceptions sparsely.

¿Cómo detecta y corrige Plexicus CWE-460?

El motor SAST de Plexicus detecta la firma de flujo de datos para CWE-460 en cada commit. Cuando hay coincidencia, nuestro agente Codex Remedium abre un PR de corrección con el código corregido, las pruebas y un resumen de una línea para el revisor.

¿Dónde puedo aprender más sobre CWE-460?

MITRE publica la definición canónica en https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/460.html. También puedes consultar la documentación de OWASP y NIST para guías relacionadas.

Debilidades relacionadas

Weaknesses related to CWE-460

CWE-459 Padre

Incomplete Cleanup

This vulnerability occurs when an application fails to properly remove temporary files, data structures, or system resources after they…

CWE-226 Hermano

Sensitive Information in Resource Not Removed Before Reuse

This vulnerability occurs when a system releases a resource like memory or a file for reuse but fails to erase the sensitive data it…

CWE-568 Hermano

finalize() Method Without super.finalize()

This vulnerability occurs when a Java class overrides the finalize() method but fails to call super.finalize() within it.

Recursos

Further reading

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