CWE-765: Multiple Unlocks of a Critical Resource
Learn about CWE-765 (Multiple Unlocks of a Critical Resource), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Multiple Unlocks of a Critical Resource?
• Overview: The CWE-765 vulnerability occurs when a software product unlocks a critical resource more times than intended, which can lead to an unexpected or unstable state in the system, especially in concurrent environments.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by causing the system to unlock resources excessively, leading to resource exhaustion or race conditions.
- Common attack patterns include manipulating semaphore counts or exploiting incorrect lock handling logic to disrupt normal operation.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences include system crashes, data corruption, or denial of service due to resource mismanagement.
- Potential cascading effects may involve unpredictable system behavior or security controls being bypassed.
- The business impact could include service downtime, loss of customer trust, and potential financial losses due to instability or breaches.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes involve ensuring that locks are only unlocked once for each corresponding lock operation.
- Security best practices include implementing robust concurrency control mechanisms and thoroughly testing lock management logic.
- Recommended tools and frameworks are those that provide reliable concurrency and resource management, such as using transaction-safe locking libraries or language features designed to handle concurrency safely.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit: Not specified
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified