CWE-824: Access of Uninitialized Pointer

Description

The product accesses or uses a pointer that has not been initialized.

Extended Description

If the pointer contains an uninitialized value, then the value might not point to a valid memory location. This could cause the product to read from or write to unexpected memory locations, leading to a denial of service. If the uninitialized pointer is used as a function call, then arbitrary functions could be invoked. If an attacker can influence the portion of uninitialized memory that is contained in the pointer, this weakness could be leveraged to execute code or perform other attacks. Depending on memory layout, associated memory management behaviors, and product operation, the attacker might be able to influence the contents of the uninitialized pointer, thus gaining more fine-grained control of the memory location to be accessed.

ThreatScore

Threat Mapped score: 1.5

Industry: Finiancial

Threat priority: P4 - Informational (Low)

Observed Examples (CVEs)

CVE: CVE-2024-32878

LLM product has a free of an uninitialized pointer
CVE: CVE-2019-3836

Chain: secure communications library does not initialize a local variable for a data structure (CWE-456), leading to access of an uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).
CVE: CVE-2018-14641

Chain: C union member is not initialized (CWE-456), leading to access of invalid pointer (CWE-824)
CVE: CVE-2010-0211

chain: unchecked return value (CWE-252) leads to free of invalid, uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).
CVE: CVE-2009-2768

Pointer in structure is not initialized, leading to NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476) and system crash.
CVE: CVE-2009-1721

Free of an uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2009-1415

Improper handling of invalid signatures leads to free of invalid pointer.
CVE: CVE-2009-0846

Invalid encoding triggers free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2009-0040

Crafted PNG image leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2008-2934

Crafted GIF image leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2007-4682

Access of uninitialized pointer might lead to code execution.
CVE: CVE-2007-4639

Step-based manipulation: invocation of debugging function before the primary initialization function leads to access of an uninitialized pointer and code execution.
CVE: CVE-2007-4000

Unchecked return values can lead to a write to an uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2007-2442

zero-length input leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2007-1213

Crafted font leads to uninitialized function pointer.
CVE: CVE-2006-6143

Uninitialized function pointer in freed memory is invoked
CVE: CVE-2006-4175

LDAP server mishandles malformed BER queries, leading to free of uninitialized memory
CVE: CVE-2006-0054

Firewall can crash with certain ICMP packets that trigger access of an uninitialized pointer.
CVE: CVE-2003-1201

LDAP server does not initialize members of structs, which leads to free of uninitialized pointer if an LDAP request fails.

Related Attack Patterns (CAPEC)

N/A

Attack TTPs

N/A

Modes of Introduction

Phase	Note
None listed.

Common Consequences

Impact: Read Memory — Notes: If the uninitialized pointer is used in a read operation, an attacker might be able to read sensitive portions of memory.
Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart — Notes: If the uninitialized pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the product, or points to a location that is "malformed" (such as NULL) or larger than expected by a read or write operation, then a crash may occur.
Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands — Notes: If the uninitialized pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible.

Potential Mitigations

None listed.

Applicable Platforms

C (N/A, Undetermined)
C++ (N/A, Undetermined)

Demonstrative Examples

N/A

Notes

Maintenance: There are close relationships between incorrect pointer dereferences and other weaknesses related to buffer operations. There may not be sufficient community agreement regarding these relationships. Further study is needed to determine when these relationships are chains, composites, perspective/layering, or other types of relationships. As of September 2010, most of the relationships are being captured as chains.
Terminology: Many weaknesses related to pointer dereferences fall under the general term of "memory corruption" or "memory safety." As of September 2010, there is no commonly-used terminology that covers the lower-level variants.

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