J2EE Bad Practices: Direct Use of Sockets

Description

The J2EE application directly uses sockets instead of using framework method calls.

Extended Description

The J2EE standard permits the use of sockets only for the purpose of communication with legacy systems when no higher-level protocol is available. Authoring your own communication protocol requires wrestling with difficult security issues. Without significant scrutiny by a security expert, chances are good that a custom communication protocol will suffer from security problems. Many of the same issues apply to a custom implementation of a standard protocol. While there are usually more resources available that address security concerns related to implementing a standard protocol, these resources are also available to attackers.

Common Consequences 1

Scope: Other

Impact: Quality Degradation

Detection Methods 1

Automated Static AnalysisHigh

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.)

Potential Mitigations 1

Phase: Architecture and Design

Use framework method calls instead of using sockets directly.

Demonstrative Examples 1

ID : DX-197

The following example opens a socket to connect to a remote server.

Code Example:

Bad

Java

java

// Perform servlet tasks.* ...

java

java

A Socket object is created directly within the Java servlet, which is a dangerous way to manage remote connections.

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

Related Weaknesses

ChildOf:

Use of Low-Level Functionality (CWE-695)

Taxonomy Mapping

7 Pernicious Kingdoms
Software Fault Patterns