CWE-1122: Excessive Halstead Complexity
Learn about CWE-1122 (Excessive Halstead Complexity), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Excessive Halstead Complexity?
• Overview: Halstead Complexity is a software metric that measures the complexity of code based on operators and operands within the program. Excessive Halstead Complexity occurs when these metrics exceed a desirable threshold, making the code difficult to understand and maintain, which can indirectly lead to security issues.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers may exploit this vulnerability by taking advantage of the difficulty in maintaining and understanding overly complex code, which can obscure security flaws.
- Common attack patterns include introducing subtle bugs that are hard to detect in complex codebases, potentially leading to vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows or logic errors.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences include an increased likelihood of bugs and vulnerabilities due to misunderstanding and mismanagement of complex code.
- Potential cascading effects involve difficulty in applying patches and updates, leading to prolonged exposure to known vulnerabilities.
- Business impact includes increased development and maintenance costs, potential data breaches, and loss of reputation due to security incidents.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes include refactoring code to reduce complexity, such as breaking down large functions into smaller, reusable ones.
- Security best practices involve conducting regular code reviews and using static analysis tools to identify high complexity areas.
- Recommended tools and frameworks include using code quality tools like SonarQube or ESLint, which can help measure and manage code complexity.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified