CWE-1121: Excessive McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity
Learn about CWE-1121 (Excessive McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Excessive McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity?
• Overview: Excessive McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity refers to a software metric that measures the complexity of a program's control flow. When this complexity exceeds a desirable maximum, it indicates that a piece of code is too complex, making it difficult to understand, test, and maintain.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers can exploit complex code by inserting malicious code into sections that are difficult to understand or test thoroughly.
- Common attack patterns include leveraging complex logic to hide backdoors or vulnerabilities that can be triggered under specific conditions.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences include an increased likelihood of introducing bugs or security vulnerabilities due to misunderstandings or oversight in complex code.
- Potential cascading effects involve more difficult debugging and patching processes, which can delay fixing vulnerabilities.
- Business impact includes higher maintenance costs and increased risk of security breaches due to overlooked vulnerabilities in complex code.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes include refactoring code to reduce complexity, such as breaking down large functions into smaller, more manageable ones.
- Security best practices involve regular code reviews and using complexity metrics to identify and address complex code sections early in development.
- Recommended tools and frameworks include static analysis tools that measure cyclomatic complexity and provide insights into simplifying code structure.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified