CWE-413

Improper Resource Locking

Weakness Description

The product does not lock or does not correctly lock a resource when the product must have exclusive access to the resource.

When a resource is not properly locked, an attacker could modify the resource while it is being operated on by the product. This might violate the product's assumption that the resource will not change, potentially leading to unexpected behaviors.

Potential Mitigations

Architecture and Design

Use a non-conflicting privilege scheme.

Architecture and DesignImplementation

Use synchronization when locking a resource.

Common Consequences

IntegrityAvailability
Modify Application DataDoS: InstabilityDoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Detection Methods

Automated Static Analysis

Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)

Effectiveness: High

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