CWE-588: Attempt to Access Child of a Non-structure Pointer
Learn about CWE-588 (Attempt to Access Child of a Non-structure Pointer), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Attempt to Access Child of a Non-structure Pointer?
• Overview: Attempting to access a child of a non-structure pointer occurs when a program incorrectly casts a non-structure type to a structure type and then tries to access a field in that supposed structure. This can lead to memory access errors or data corruption.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by crafting inputs that cause the program to cast pointers improperly, leading to unexpected behavior.
- Common attack patterns include manipulating memory layout or exploiting poorly validated data to trigger incorrect pointer casts.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences of successful exploitation include crashes, data corruption, or arbitrary code execution.
- Potential cascading effects involve compromising the integrity of data or unauthorized access to sensitive information.
- Business impact may include service disruption, loss of data integrity, and potential legal liabilities.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes include validating pointer types and ensuring proper casting only when safe.
- Security best practices involve using type-safe languages or employing static analysis tools to detect improper casts.
- Recommended tools and frameworks include static analysis tools like Coverity or SonarQube to identify and prevent such vulnerabilities.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified