CWE-122 is Heap-based Buffer Overflow. The flaw arises when the product writes past the end of a buffer that was allocated on the heap. The database currently holds 1,098 vulnerabilities mapped to CWE-122 and 3 of them are in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
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The product writes past the end of a buffer that was allocated on the heap.
| Impact | Scope | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory) | Availability | Buffer overflows generally lead to crashes. Other attacks leading to lack of availability are possible, including putting the program into an infinite loop. |
| Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Modify Memory | Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability, Access Control | Buffer overflows often can be used to execute arbitrary code, which is usually outside the scope of a program's implicit security policy. Besides important user data, heap-based overflows can be used to overwrite function pointers that may be living in memory, pointing it to the attacker's code. Even in applications that do not explicitly use function pointers, the run-time will usually leave many in memory. For example, object methods in C++ are generally implemented using function pointers. Even in C programs, there is often a global offset table used by the underlying runtime. |
| Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Other | Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability, Access Control, Other | When the consequence is arbitrary code execution, this can often be used to subvert any other security service. |
| Method | Approach | Effectiveness |
|---|---|---|
| Fuzzing | Fuzz testing (fuzzing) is a powerful technique for generating large numbers of diverse inputs - either randomly or algorithmically - and dynamically invoking the code with those inputs. Even with random inputs, it is often capable of generating unexpected results such as crashes, memory corruption, or resource consumption. Fuzzing effectively produces repeatable test cases that clearly indicate bugs, which helps developers to diagnose the issues. | High |
| Automated Dynamic Analysis | Use tools that are integrated during compilation to insert runtime error-checking mechanisms related to memory safety errors, such as AddressSanitizer (ASan) for C/C++ [REF-1518].Crafted inputs are necessary to reach the code containing the error, such as generated by fuzzers. Also, these tools may reduce performance, and they only report the error condition - not the original mistake that led to the error. | Moderate |
Below are representative vulnerabilities related to this CWE, prioritized by severity.
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