CWE-484: Omitted Break Statement in Switch

Description

The product omits a break statement within a switch or similar construct, causing code associated with multiple conditions to execute. This can cause problems when the programmer only intended to execute code associated with one condition.

Extended Description

This can lead to critical code executing in situations where it should not.

ThreatScore

Threat Mapped score: 0.0

Industry: Finiancial

Threat priority: Unclassified

Observed Examples (CVEs)

No observed examples available.

Related Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

N/A

Attack TTPs

N/A

Modes of Introduction

Phase	Note
Implementation	N/A

Common Consequences

Impact: Alter Execution Logic — Notes: This weakness can cause unintended logic to be executed and other unexpected application behavior.

Potential Mitigations

Implementation: Omitting a break statement so that one may fall through is often indistinguishable from an error, and therefore should be avoided. If you need to use fall-through capabilities, make sure that you have clearly documented this within the switch statement, and ensure that you have examined all the logical possibilities. (N/A)
Implementation: The functionality of omitting a break statement could be clarified with an if statement. This method is much safer. (N/A)

Applicable Platforms

C (N/A, Undetermined)
C++ (N/A, Undetermined)
Java (N/A, Undetermined)
C# (N/A, Undetermined)
PHP (N/A, Undetermined)

Demonstrative Examples

Intro: In both of these examples, a message is printed based on the month passed into the function:

Body: Both examples do not use a break statement after each case, which leads to unintended fall-through behavior. For example, calling "printMessage(10)" will result in the text "OctoberNovemberDecember is a great month" being printed.

public void printMessage(int month){ switch (month) { case 1: print("January"); case 2: print("February"); case 3: print("March"); case 4: print("April"); case 5: print("May"); case 6: print("June"); case 7: print("July"); case 8: print("August"); case 9: print("September"); case 10: print("October"); case 11: print("November"); case 12: print("December"); } println(" is a great month"); }

Notes

No notes available.

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