Category: 7PK - Errors
Draft
Summary
This category represents one of the phyla in the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms vulnerability classification. It includes weaknesses that occur when an application does not properly handle errors that occur during processing. According to the authors of the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms, "Errors and error handling represent a class of API. Errors related to error handling are so common that they deserve a special kingdom of their own. As with 'API Abuse,' there are two ways to introduce an error-related security vulnerability: the most common one is handling errors poorly (or not at all). The second is producing errors that either give out too much information (to possible attackers) or are difficult to handle."
Membership
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CWE-391 | Unchecked Error Condition | [PLANNED FOR DEPRECATION. SEE MAINTENANCE NOTES AND CONSIDER CWE-252, CWE-248, OR CWE-1069.] Ignoring exceptions and other error conditions may allow an attacker to induce unexpected behavior unnoticed. |
| CWE-395 | Use of NullPointerException Catch to Detect NULL Pointer Dereference | Catching NullPointerException should not be used as an alternative to programmatic checks to prevent dereferencing a null pointer. |
| CWE-396 | Declaration of Catch for Generic Exception | Catching overly broad exceptions promotes complex error handling code that is more likely to contain security vulnerabilities. |
| CWE-397 | Declaration of Throws for Generic Exception | The product throws or raises an overly broad exceptions that can hide important details and produce inappropriate responses to certain conditions. |
| CWE-700 | Seven Pernicious Kingdoms | This view (graph) organizes weaknesses using a hierarchical structure that is similar to that used by Seven Pernicious Kingdoms. |
Vulnerability Mapping Notes
Usage: Prohibited
Reasons: Category
Rationale:
This entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been discouraged since 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that can help CWE users with data aggregation, navigation, and browsing. However, they are not weaknesses in themselves.
Comment:
Consider mapping to weaknesses that are members of this Category.