CWE-558—Use of getlogin() in Multithreaded Application

Weakness Name

Use of getlogin() in Multithreaded Application

Description

The product uses the getlogin() function in a multithreaded context, potentially causing it to return incorrect values.

The getlogin() function returns a pointer to a string that contains the name of the user associated with the calling process. The function is not reentrant, meaning that if it is called from another process, the contents are not locked out and the value of the string can be changed by another process. This makes it very risky to use because the username can be changed by other processes, so the results of the function cannot be trusted.

Common Consequences

Scope:

Integrity, Access Control, Other

Impact:

Modify Application Data, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Other

Related Weaknesses

• CWE-663Use of a Non-reentrant Function in a Concurrent Context