CWE-228: Improper Handling of Syntactically Invalid Structure
Description
The product does not handle or incorrectly handles input that is not syntactically well-formed with respect to the associated specification.
- Abstraction
- ClassAn abstract weakness, independent of any specific language or technology.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Incomplete
Common consequences
- IntegrityAvailability
Unexpected State; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU)
If an input is syntactically invalid, then processing the input could place the system in an unexpected state that could lead to a crash, consume available system resources or other unintended behaviors.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
Child weaknesses
- CWE-166Improper Handling of Missing Special Element
- CWE-167Improper Handling of Additional Special Element
- CWE-168Improper Handling of Inconsistent Special Elements
- CWE-229Improper Handling of Values
- CWE-233Improper Handling of Parameters
- CWE-237Improper Handling of Structural Elements
- CWE-241Improper Handling of Unexpected Data Type
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.