CWE-390 Base Rascunho Medium likelihood

Detection of Error Condition Without Action

This weakness occurs when software successfully identifies an error condition but then fails to take any meaningful action to address it. The error is detected but ignored, leaving the system in an…

Definição

What is CWE-390?

Imagine your code checks for a failed login attempt, a missing file, or a network timeout, but then simply logs the event and continues normal execution as if nothing went wrong. This creates a silent failure where the root problem isn't corrected, and the application might proceed using bad data, null pointers, or unstable connections. The core issue is that detection logic is present, but the crucial response—like rolling back a transaction, showing a user-friendly alert, or falling back to a secure default—is completely missing. For developers, this often stems from placeholder error handling, such as empty `catch` blocks or generic logging statements that don't trigger remediation. To fix it, every error check must have a defined outcome: terminate the operation safely, retry with limitations, notify the user appropriately, or revert to a known good state. Treating error detection as a separate step from the response action leaves critical security and stability gaps that attackers or unexpected conditions can easily exploit.

Impacto no mundo real

Real-world CVEs caused by CWE-390

CVE-2022-21820

A GPU data center manager detects an error due to a malformed request but does not act on it, leading to memory corruption.

Como os atacantes a exploram

Trajeto do atacante passo a passo

1
The following example attempts to allocate memory for a character. After the call to malloc, an if statement is used to check whether the malloc function failed.
2
The conditional successfully detects a NULL return value from malloc indicating a failure, however it does not do anything to handle the problem. Unhandled errors may have unexpected results and may cause the program to crash or terminate.
3
Instead, the if block should contain statements that either attempt to fix the problem or notify the user that an error has occurred and continue processing or perform some cleanup and gracefully terminate the program. The following example notifies the user that the malloc function did not allocate the required memory resources and returns an error code.
4
In the following C++ example the method readFile() will read the file whose name is provided in the input parameter and will return the contents of the file in char string. The method calls open() and read() may result in errors if the file does not exist or does not contain any data to read. These errors will be thrown when the is_open() method and good() method indicate errors opening or reading the file. However, these errors are not handled within the catch statement. Catch statements that do not perform any processing will have unexpected results. In this case an empty char string will be returned, and the file will not be properly closed.
5
The catch statement should contain statements that either attempt to fix the problem or notify the user that an error has occurred and continue processing or perform some cleanup and gracefully terminate the program. The following C++ example contains two catch statements. The first of these will catch a specific error thrown within the try block, and the second catch statement will catch all other errors from within the catch block. Both catch statements will notify the user that an error has occurred, close the file, and rethrow to the block that called the readFile() method for further handling or possible termination of the program.

Exemplo de código vulnerável

Vulnerable C

The following example attempts to allocate memory for a character. After the call to malloc, an if statement is used to check whether the malloc function failed.

Vulnerável C

foo=malloc(sizeof(char)); //the next line checks to see if malloc failed
  if (foo==NULL) {
  	//We do nothing so we just ignore the error.
  }

Exemplo de código seguro

Secure C

Instead, the if block should contain statements that either attempt to fix the problem or notify the user that an error has occurred and continue processing or perform some cleanup and gracefully terminate the program. The following example notifies the user that the malloc function did not allocate the required memory resources and returns an error code.

Seguro C

foo=malloc(sizeof(char)); //the next line checks to see if malloc failed
  if (foo==NULL) {
  	printf("Malloc failed to allocate memory resources");
  	return -1;
  }

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-390

Implementation Properly handle each exception. This is the recommended solution. Ensure that all exceptions are handled in such a way that you can be sure of the state of your system at any given moment.
Implementation If a function returns an error, it is important to either fix the problem and try again, alert the user that an error has happened and let the program continue, or alert the user and close and cleanup the program.
Testing Subject the product to extensive testing to discover some of the possible instances of where/how errors or return values are not handled. Consider testing techniques such as ad hoc, equivalence partitioning, robustness and fault tolerance, mutation, and fuzzing.

Sinais de deteção

How to detect CWE-390

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.)

Correção automática do Plexicus

O Plexicus deteta automaticamente o CWE-390 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-390?

Qual a gravidade do CWE-390?

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-390?

A MITRE não especificou as plataformas afetadas por este CWE — pode aplicar-se à maioria das stacks de aplicações.

Como posso prevenir o CWE-390?

Properly handle each exception. This is the recommended solution. Ensure that all exceptions are handled in such a way that you can be sure of the state of your system at any given moment. If a function returns an error, it is important to either fix the problem and try again, alert the user that an error has happened and let the program continue, or alert the user and close and cleanup the program.

Como é que o Plexicus deteta e corrige o CWE-390?

O motor SAST do Plexicus correlaciona a assinatura de fluxo de dados do CWE-390 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-390?

A MITRE publica a definição canónica em https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/390.html. Pode também consultar a documentação da OWASP e do NIST para orientações adjacentes.

Fraquezas relacionadas

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Recursos

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