CWE-412—Unrestricted Externally Accessible Lock

Weakness Name

Unrestricted Externally Accessible Lock

Description

The product properly checks for the existence of a lock, but the lock can be externally controlled or influenced by an actor that is outside of the intended sphere of control.

This prevents the product from acting on associated resources or performing other behaviors that are controlled by the presence of the lock. Relevant locks might include an exclusive lock or mutex, or modifying a shared resource that is treated as a lock. If the lock can be held for an indefinite period of time, then the denial of service could be permanent.

Common Consequences

Scope:

Availability

Impact:

DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

Notes:

When an attacker can control a lock, the program may wait indefinitely until the attacker releases the lock, causing a denial of service to other users of the program. This is especially problematic if there is a blocking operation on the lock.

Related Weaknesses

• CWE-410Insufficient Resource Pool
• CWE-667Improper Locking