CWE-405—Asymmetric Resource Consumption (Amplification)

Weakness Name

Asymmetric Resource Consumption (Amplification)

Description

The product does not properly control situations in which an adversary can cause the product to consume or produce excessive resources without requiring the adversary to invest equivalent work or otherwise prove authorization, i.e., the adversary's influence is "asymmetric."

This can lead to poor performance due to "amplification" of resource consumption, typically in a non-linear fashion. This situation is worsened if the product allows malicious users or attackers to consume more resources than their access level permits.

Common Consequences

Scope:

Availability

Impact:

DoS: Amplification, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

Notes:

Sometimes this is a factor in "flood" attacks, but other types of amplification exist.

Related Weaknesses

• CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionHigh