CWE-374 Base Rascunho Medium likelihood

Passing Mutable Objects to an Untrusted Method

This vulnerability occurs when a function receives a direct reference to mutable data, such as an object or array, instead of a safe copy of that data.

Definição

What is CWE-374?

This vulnerability occurs when a function receives a direct reference to mutable data, such as an object or array, instead of a safe copy of that data.
When you pass a mutable object directly to a method—especially one from an external library or untrusted code—that method can alter or even delete the contents of your object. This breaks a fundamental assumption in your code: that the data you own remains under your control. The called function might change values, add unexpected elements, or clear the object entirely, leading to inconsistent states, crashes, or logic errors in your application. To prevent this, you should create and pass a defensive copy (a clone or deep copy) of the mutable data before sending it to any code you don't fully control. This ensures the original data remains intact and valid, regardless of what the external method does. Always treat mutable data passed across trust boundaries as potentially hostile and isolate it through copying.
Impacto no mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-374

Ainda não há referências CVE públicas associadas a este CWE no catálogo da MITRE.

Como os atacantes a exploram

Trajeto do atacante passo a passo

  1. 1

    The following example demonstrates the weakness.

  2. 2

    In this example, bar and baz will be passed by reference to doOtherStuff() which may change them.

  3. 3

    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.

  4. 4

    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.

  5. 5

    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]

Exemplo de código vulnerável

Vulnerable C

The following example demonstrates the weakness.

Vulnerável C 
private:
  	int foo;
  	complexType bar;
  	String baz;
  	otherClass externalClass;
  public:
  	void doStuff() {
  		externalClass.doOtherStuff(foo, bar, baz)
  	}
Exemplo de código seguro

Secure Java

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.

Seguro 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);}
  ...
What changed: the unsafe sink is replaced (or the input is validated/escaped) so the same payload no longer triggers the weakness.
Lista de verificação de prevenção

How to prevent CWE-374

  • Implementation Pass in data which should not be altered as constant or immutable.
  • 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.
Sinais de deteção

How to detect CWE-374

SAST High

Executar análise estática (SAST) na base de código à procura do padrão inseguro no fluxo de dados.

DAST Moderate

Executar testes dinâmicos de segurança de aplicações (DAST) contra o endpoint em execução.

Runtime Moderate

Monitorizar os registos em tempo de execução para traços de exceção invulgares, input malformado ou tentativas de contornar a autorização.

Code review Moderate

Revisão de código: sinalizar qualquer novo código que trate input desta superfície sem usar os ajudantes validados do framework.

Correção automática do Plexicus

O Plexicus deteta automaticamente o CWE-374 e abre um PR de correção em menos de 60 segundos.

O Codex Remedium analisa cada commit, identifica esta fraqueza exata e entrega um pull request pronto para revisão com o patch. Sem tickets. Sem transferências.

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Perguntas frequentes

Frequently asked questions

O que é o CWE-374?

This vulnerability occurs when a function receives a direct reference to mutable data, such as an object or array, instead of a safe copy of that data.

Qual a gravidade do CWE-374?

A MITRE classifica a probabilidade de exploração como Média — a exploração é realista mas normalmente requer condições específicas.

Que linguagens ou plataformas são afetadas pelo CWE-374?

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

Como posso prevenir o CWE-374?

Pass in data which should not be altered as constant or immutable. 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.

Como é que o Plexicus deteta e corrige o CWE-374?

O motor SAST do Plexicus correlaciona a assinatura de fluxo de dados do CWE-374 em cada commit. Quando é encontrada uma correspondência, o nosso agente Codex Remedium abre um PR de correção com o código corrigido, testes e um resumo de uma linha para o revisor.

Onde posso saber mais sobre o CWE-374?

A MITRE publica a definição canónica em https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/374.html. Pode também consultar a documentação da OWASP e do NIST para orientações adjacentes.

Fraquezas relacionadas

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Recursos

Further reading

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