CWE-617—Reachable Assertion

Weakness Name

Reachable Assertion

Description

The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary.

While assertion is good for catching logic errors and reducing the chances of reaching more serious vulnerability conditions, it can still lead to a denial of service. For example, if a server handles multiple simultaneous connections, and an assert() occurs in one single connection that causes all other connections to be dropped, this is a reachable assertion that leads to a denial of service.

Common Consequences

Scope:

Availability

Impact:

DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Notes:

An attacker that can trigger an assert statement can still lead to a denial of service if the relevant code can be triggered by an attacker, and if the scope of the assert() extends beyond the attacker's own session.

Related Weaknesses

• CWE-670Always-Incorrect Control Flow Implementation
• CWE-705Incorrect Control Flow Scoping