CWE-462: Duplicate Key in Associative List (Alist)
Description
Duplicate keys in associative lists can lead to non-unique keys being mistaken for an error.
A duplicate key entry -- if the alist is designed properly -- could be used as a constant time replace function. However, duplicate key entries could be inserted by mistake. Because of this ambiguity, duplicate key entries in an association list are not recommended and should not be allowed.
- Abstraction
- VariantA weakness tied to a specific language, technology or resource.
- Likelihood of exploit
- Low
- Status
- Incomplete
Common consequences
- Other
Quality Degradation; Varies by Context
Potential mitigations
- Architecture and Design
Use a hash table instead of an alist.
- Architecture and Design
Use an alist which checks the uniqueness of hash keys with each entry before inserting the entry.
Related weaknesses
Parent weaknesses
CAPEC attack patterns that exploit it
CWE 4.20 links no CAPEC attack pattern to this weakness.