CWE-617: Reachable Assertion

What is CWE-617?

CWE-617 is Reachable Assertion. The flaw arises when the product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary. The database currently holds 211 vulnerabilities mapped to CWE-617 and none of them are in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

OWASP Top 10 Rank-
Related CVES (365 days)211
AbstractionBase
Likelihood of exploit-

Vulnerabilities mapped to CWE-617

211 vulnerabilities1219% increase year over year

No data

No vulnerability data in CISA KEV for CWE-617

Official definition

ByMitre CWE

The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary.

Characteristics

Alternate terms

  • assertion failure

Modes of introduction

  • Implementation

Common consequences

ImpactScopeExplanation
DoS: Crash, Exit, or RestartAvailabilityWhile assertion is good for catching logic errors and reducing the chances of reaching more serious vulnerability conditions, an attacker can still cause a denial of service if they can trigger an assert statement, and if the scope of the assert() extends beyond the attacker's own session. For example, if a server handles multiple simultaneous connections, if an assert() occurs in one single connection that causes all other connections to be dropped, this could be a significant denial of service.

Risk mitigations

  1. ImplementationIf the assertion statement is required (e.g., for security or reliability), change the invoking code to avoid the conditions that trigger the assertion.
  2. ImplementationConsider changing the assertion to some other less "fatal" error. This might not be easy to implement, since other code may be needed to handle the error.
  3. ImplementationMake sensitive open/close operations non-reachable from directly user-controlled data (e.g. open/close resources)
  4. Input Validation · ImplementationPerform input validation on user data.

Detection methods

MethodApproachEffectiveness
Automated Static AnalysisAutomated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)High

Representative vulnerabilities

Below are representative vulnerabilities related to this CWE, prioritized by severity.

Sources (2)
MITRE CWE
CWE Terms of Use

Supporting documents

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