CWE-768: Incorrect Short Circuit Evaluation
Learn about CWE-768 (Incorrect Short Circuit Evaluation), its security impact, exploitation methods, and prevention guidelines.
What is Incorrect Short Circuit Evaluation?
• Overview: Incorrect Short Circuit Evaluation occurs when a conditional statement with multiple logical expressions has non-leading expressions that produce side effects, which may not execute due to short-circuiting, leading to unexpected program states.
• Exploitation Methods:
- Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by manipulating input to trigger or bypass certain conditions, causing unintended side effects.
- Common attack patterns include crafting inputs that ensure certain conditions are met or not met, leading to unexecuted expressions that affect the program's logic.
• Security Impact:
- Direct consequences include unexpected behavior or program states that can lead to vulnerabilities.
- Potential cascading effects include logic errors that may compromise data integrity, availability, or confidentiality.
- Business impact may involve system downtime, data breaches, or loss of customer trust due to exploited vulnerabilities.
• Prevention Guidelines:
- Specific code-level fixes include avoiding side effects in non-leading expressions of conditionals and ensuring all necessary expressions are evaluated.
- Security best practices involve thorough code reviews focusing on conditional logic and testing for edge cases where short-circuiting may alter expected behavior.
- Recommended tools and frameworks include static analysis tools that detect potential short-circuit evaluation issues and enforce coding standards that discourage such practices.
Technical Details
Likelihood of Exploit:
Affected Languages: Not specified
Affected Technologies: Not specified