Deletion of Data Structure Sentinel

Opis

The accidental deletion of a data-structure sentinel can cause serious programming logic problems.

Often times data-structure sentinels are used to mark structure of the data structure. A common example of this is the null character at the end of strings. Another common example is linked lists which may contain a sentinel to mark the end of the list. It is dangerous to allow this type of control data to be easily accessible. Therefore, it is important to protect from the deletion or modification outside of some wrapper interface which provides safety.

Skutki

• Availability, Other

  Other

  Generally this error will cause the data structure to not work properly.

• Authorization, Other

  Other

  If a control character, such as NULL is removed, one may cause resource access control problems.

Zapobieganie

• Architecture and Design

  Use an abstraction library to abstract away risky APIs. Not a complete solution.

• Build and Compilation · Compilation or Build Hardening

  Run or compile the software using features or extensions that automatically provide a protection mechanism that mitigates or eliminates buffer overflows.

  For example, certain compilers and extensions provide automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are built into the compiled code. Examples include the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice.

  Skuteczność: Defense in Depth

• Operation

  Use OS-level preventative functionality. Not a complete solution.

Słabość nadrzędna

• CWE-707 Improper Neutralization

Pokrewna

• CWE-464 Addition of Data Structure Sentinel

Kiedy powstaje

• Implementation

Dotyczy

C, C++

Źródła

1. The CLASP Application Security Process — Secure Software, Inc., 2005
2. The Art of Software Security Assessment — Mark Dowd, John McDonald, Justin Schuh, Chapter 8, "NUL-Termination Problems", Page 452, Addison Wesley, 2006