CWE-367Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

PUBLISHEDweakness recordMedium
released 2006-07-19 · last modified 2025-12-11
CWE-367 - Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition - Diagram

Metadata

CWE ID:
CWE-367
Abstraction:
Base
Structure:
Simple
Status:
Incomplete
Release Date:
2006-07-19
Latest Modification Date:
2025-12-11

Weakness Name

Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

Description

The product checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check.

Common Consequences

Scope:
Integrity, Other
Impact:
Alter Execution Logic, Unexpected State
Notes:
The attacker can gain access to otherwise unauthorized resources.
Scope:
Integrity, Other
Impact:
Modify Application Data, Modify Files or Directories, Modify Memory, Other
Notes:
Race conditions such as this kind may be employed to gain read or write access to resources which are not normally readable or writable by the user in question.
Scope:
Integrity, Other
Impact:
Other
Notes:
The resource in question, or other resources (through the corrupted one), may be changed in undesirable ways by a malicious user.
Scope:
Non-Repudiation
Impact:
Hide Activities
Notes:
If a file or other resource is written in this method, as opposed to in a valid way, logging of the activity may not occur.
Scope:
Non-Repudiation, Other
Impact:
Other
Notes:
In some cases it may be possible to delete files a malicious user might not otherwise have access to, such as log files.
Scope:
Other
Impact:
Unexpected State
Notes:
The product may perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state.

Related Weaknesses