CWE-588: Attempt to Access Child of a Non-structure Pointer
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Description
Casting a non-structure type to a structure type and accessing a field can lead to memory access errors or data corruption.
Extended Description
N/A
ThreatScore
Threat Mapped score: 0.0
Industry: Finiancial
Threat priority: Unclassified
Observed Examples (CVEs)
Related Attack Patterns (CAPEC)
N/A
Attack TTPs
N/A
Modes of Introduction
| Phase |
Note |
| Implementation |
N/A |
Common Consequences
- Impact: Modify Memory — Notes: Adjacent variables in memory may be corrupted by assignments performed on fields after the cast.
- Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart — Notes: Execution may end due to a memory access error.
Potential Mitigations
- Requirements: The choice could be made to use a language that is not susceptible to these issues. (N/A)
- Implementation: Review of type casting operations can identify locations where incompatible types are cast. (N/A)
Applicable Platforms
Demonstrative Examples
Intro: The following example demonstrates the weakness.
struct foo { int i; } ... int main(int argc, char **argv) { *foo = (struct foo *)main; foo->i = 2; return foo->i; }
Notes
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