CWE-822—Untrusted Pointer Dereference

Weakness Name

Untrusted Pointer Dereference

Description

The product obtains a value from an untrusted source, converts this value to a pointer, and dereferences the resulting pointer.

An attacker can supply a pointer for memory locations that the product is not expecting. If the pointer is dereferenced for a write operation, the attack might allow modification of critical state variables, cause a crash, or execute code. If the dereferencing operation is for a read, then the attack might allow reading of sensitive data, cause a crash, or set a variable to an unexpected value (since the value will be read from an unexpected memory location). There are several variants of this weakness, including but not necessarily limited to:

Common Consequences

Scope:

Confidentiality

Impact:

Read Memory

Notes:

If the untrusted pointer is used in a read operation, an attacker might be able to read sensitive portions of memory.

Scope:

Availability

Impact:

DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Notes:

If the untrusted pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the product, or points to a location that is "malformed" or larger than expected by a read or write operation, the application may terminate unexpectedly.

Scope:

Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability

Impact:

Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Modify Memory

Notes:

If the untrusted pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible.

Related Weaknesses

• CWE-119Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory BufferHigh
• CWE-125Out-of-bounds Read
• CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteHigh