Category: 7PK - API Abuse
This category represents one of the phyla in the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms vulnerability classification. It includes weaknesses that involve the software using an API in a manner contrary to its intended use. According to the authors of the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms, "An API is a contract between a caller and a callee. The most common forms of API misuse occurs when the caller does not honor its end of this contract. For example, if a program does not call chdir() after calling chroot(), it violates the contract that specifies how to change the active root directory in a secure fashion. Another good example of library abuse is expecting the callee to return trustworthy DNS information to the caller. In this case, the caller misuses the callee API by making certain assumptions about its behavior (that the return value can be used for authentication purposes). One can also violate the caller-callee contract from the other side. For example, if a coder subclasses SecureRandom and returns a non-random value, the contract is violated."
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CWE-242 | Use of Inherently Dangerous Function | The product calls a function that can never be guaranteed to work safely. |
| CWE-243 | Creation of chroot Jail Without Changing Working Directory | The product uses the chroot() system call to create a jail, but does not change the working directory afterward. This does not prevent access to files outside of the jail. |
| CWE-244 | Improper Clearing of Heap Memory Before Release ('Heap Inspection') | Using realloc() to resize buffers that store sensitive information can leave the sensitive information exposed to attack, because it is not removed from memory. |
| CWE-245 | J2EE Bad Practices: Direct Management of Connections | The J2EE application directly manages connections, instead of using the container's connection management facilities. |
| CWE-246 | J2EE Bad Practices: Direct Use of Sockets | The J2EE application directly uses sockets instead of using framework method calls. |
| CWE-248 | Uncaught Exception | An exception is thrown from a function, but it is not caught. |
| CWE-250 | Execution with Unnecessary Privileges | The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses. |
| CWE-252 | Unchecked Return Value | The product does not check the return value from a method or function, which can prevent it from detecting unexpected states and conditions. |
| CWE-558 | Use of getlogin() in Multithreaded Application | The product uses the getlogin() function in a multithreaded context, potentially causing it to return incorrect values. |
| CWE-700 | Seven Pernicious Kingdoms | This view (graph) organizes weaknesses using a hierarchical structure that is similar to that used by Seven Pernicious Kingdoms. |
| CWE-251 | Often Misused: String Management | Functions that manipulate strings encourage buffer overflows. |