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CWE-126 - Buffer Over-read

  • Abstraction:Variant
  • Structure:Simple
  • Status:Draft
  • Release Date:2006-07-19
  • Latest Modification Date:2025-04-03

Weakness Name

Buffer Over-read

Description

The product reads from a buffer using buffer access mechanisms such as indexes or pointers that reference memory locations after the targeted buffer.

Common Consequences

Scope: Confidentiality

Impact: Read Memory

Scope: Confidentiality

Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism

Notes: By reading out-of-bounds memory, an attacker might be able to get secret values, such as memory addresses, which can be bypass protection mechanisms such as ASLR in order to improve the reliability and likelihood of exploiting a separate weakness to achieve code execution instead of just denial of service.

Scope: Availability, Integrity

Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Notes: An attacker might be able to cause a crash or other denial of service by causing the product to read a memory location that is not allowed (such as a segmentation fault), or to cause other conditions in which the read operation returns more data than is expected.

Related Weaknesses

CWE-125Out-of-bounds Read

CWE-788Access of Memory Location After End of Buffer