CWE-1077: Floating Point Comparison with Incorrect Operator

What is Floating Point Comparison with Incorrect Operator?

• Overview: Floating Point Comparison with Incorrect Operator (CWE-1077) occurs when code compares floating point values using operators that don't account for precision loss due to rounding errors, potentially leading to unexpected results.

• Exploitation Methods:

• Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by crafting inputs that lead to incorrect comparisons, causing logic errors in the software.
• Common attack patterns include manipulating calculations to produce results that trigger faulty decision-making or bypass controls due to inaccurate equality checks.

• Security Impact:

• Direct consequences include incorrect program behavior, such as incorrect branching or faulty data processing.
• Potential cascading effects involve data integrity issues, unreliable application performance, or bypassing of security controls.
• Business impact may encompass loss of trust due to unreliable software, data corruption, or security breaches if critical systems are affected.

• Prevention Guidelines:

• Specific code-level fixes include using tolerance-based comparisons (e.g., checking if numbers are within a small epsilon range) instead of direct equality checks.
• Security best practices involve thorough testing of floating-point operations and understanding the limitations of precision.
• Recommended tools and frameworks include static analysis tools that can detect improper floating-point comparisons and libraries that handle floating-point arithmetic more accurately.

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Technical Details

Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified

Affected Languages: Not specified

Affected Technologies: Not specified