CWE-459: Incomplete Cleanup
Description
The product does not properly clean up and remove temporary or supporting resources after they have been used.
- Abstraction
- BaseA weakness specific enough to point to detection and prevention methods.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Not rated by MITRE
- Status
- Draft
Common consequences
- OtherConfidentialityIntegrity
Other; Read Application Data; Modify Application Data; DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
It is possible to overflow the number of temporary files because directories typically have limits on the number of files allowed. This could create a denial of service problem.
Potential mitigations
- Architecture and DesignImplementation
Temporary files and other supporting resources should be deleted/released immediately after they are no longer needed.
Related weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.