CWE-454: External Initialization of Trusted Variables or Data Stores
Description
The product initializes critical internal variables or data stores using inputs that can be modified by untrusted actors.
A product system should be reluctant to trust variables that have been initialized outside of its trust boundary, especially if they are initialized by users. The variables may have been initialized incorrectly. If an attacker can initialize the variable, then they can influence what the vulnerable system will do.
- Abstraction
- BaseA weakness specific enough to point to detection and prevention methods.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Draft
Common consequences
- Integrity
Modify Application Data
An attacker could gain access to and modify sensitive data or system information.
Potential mitigations
- ImplementationInput Validation
A product system should be reluctant to trust variables that have been initialized outside of its trust boundary. Ensure adequate checking (e.g. input validation) is performed when relying on input from outside a trust boundary.
- Architecture and Design
Avoid any external control of variables. If necessary, restrict the variables that can be modified using an allowlist, and use a different namespace or naming convention if possible.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
Can also be
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.