CWE-192: Integer Coercion Error
Description
Integer coercion refers to a set of flaws pertaining to the type casting, extension, or truncation of primitive data types.
Several flaws fall under the category of integer coercion errors. For the most part, these errors in and of themselves result only in availability and data integrity issues. However, in some circumstances, they may result in other, more complicated security related flaws, such as buffer overflow conditions.
- Abstraction
- VariantA weakness tied to a specific language, technology or resource.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Medium
- Status
- Incomplete
Common consequences
- Availability
DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Integer coercion often leads to undefined states of execution resulting in infinite loops or crashes.
- IntegrityConfidentialityAvailability
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
In some cases, integer coercion errors can lead to exploitable buffer overflow conditions, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code.
- IntegrityOther
Other
Integer coercion errors result in an incorrect value being stored for the variable in question.
Potential mitigations
- Requirements
A language which throws exceptions on ambiguous data casts might be chosen.
- Architecture and Design
Design objects and program flow such that multiple or complex casts are unnecessary
- Implementation
Ensure that any data type casting that you must used is entirely understood in order to reduce the plausibility of error in use.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.