Struts: Unused Validation Form

Draft Variant

Structure: Simple

Description

An unused validation form indicates that validation logic is not up-to-date.

Extended Description

It is easy for developers to forget to update validation logic when they remove or rename action form mappings. One indication that validation logic is not being properly maintained is the presence of an unused validation form.

Common Consequences 1

Scope: Other

Impact: Quality Degradation

Potential Mitigations 1

Phase: Implementation

Remove the unused Validation Form from the validation.xml file.

Demonstrative Examples 1

In the following example the class RegistrationForm is a Struts framework ActionForm Bean that will maintain user input data from a registration webpage for an online business site. The user will enter registration data and, through the Struts framework, the RegistrationForm bean will maintain the user data in the form fields using the private member variables. The RegistrationForm class uses the Struts validation capability by extending the ValidatorForm class and including the validation for the form fields within the validator XML file, validator.xml.

Code Example:

Bad

Java

java

// private variables for registration form* private String name; private String address; private String city; private String state; private String zipcode;

java

java

Code Example:Bad
XML
xml

However, the validator XML file, validator.xml, for the RegistrationForm class includes the validation form for the user input form field "phone" that is no longer used by the input form and the RegistrationForm class. Any validation forms that are no longer required should be removed from the validator XML file, validator.xml.

The existence of unused forms may be an indication to attackers that this code is out of date or poorly maintained.

References 1

Seven Pernicious Kingdoms: A Taxonomy of Software Security Errors

Katrina Tsipenyuk, Brian Chess, and Gary McGraw

NIST Workshop on Software Security Assurance Tools Techniques and Metrics • NIST

07-11-2005

https://samate.nist.gov/SSATTM_Content/papers/Seven%20Pernicious%20Kingdoms%20-%20Taxonomy%20of%20Sw%20Security%20Errors%20-%20Tsipenyuk%20-%20Chess%20-%20McGraw.pdf

ID: REF-6

Applicable Platforms

Languages:

Java : Undetermined

Modes of Introduction

Implementation

Operation

Related Weaknesses

ChildOf:

Irrelevant Code (CWE-1164)

ChildOf:

Improper Input Validation (CWE-20)

Taxonomy Mapping

7 Pernicious Kingdoms