CWE-764: Multiple Locks of a Critical Resource

What is Multiple Locks of a Critical Resource?

• Overview: Multiple Locks of a Critical Resource (CWE-764) occurs when a software product locks a critical resource more times than intended, which can lead to an unexpected or unstable state within the system. This typically happens in concurrent environments where resources are shared among multiple threads or processes.

• Exploitation Methods:

• Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by deliberately causing the system to lock a resource multiple times, leading to resource exhaustion.
• Common attack patterns include triggering excessive locking in semaphores or binary locks, which may lead to denial of service or system hangs.

• Security Impact:

• Direct consequences of successful exploitation include degraded system performance or denial of service due to resource exhaustion.
• Potential cascading effects might involve system instability, inability to process legitimate requests, or complete application failure.
• Business impact could include loss of service availability, decreased customer satisfaction, and potential financial loss due to downtime.

• Prevention Guidelines:

• Specific code-level fixes include ensuring that lock acquisition and release are correctly balanced and avoiding unnecessary or nested locks.
• Security best practices involve using proper synchronization mechanisms and understanding the locking behavior of the chosen locking primitives.
• Recommended tools and frameworks include static analysis tools to detect improper lock usage and concurrency testing frameworks to simulate and identify locking issues in a controlled environment.

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Technical Details

Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified

Affected Languages: Not specified

Affected Technologies: Not specified