COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONIncomplete

CWE-205

Observable Behavioral Discrepancy

The product's behaviors indicate important differences that may be observed by unauthorized actors in a way that reveals (1) its internal state or decision process, or (2) differences from other products with equivalent functionality.

Abstraction

Base

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

The product's behaviors indicate important differences that may be observed by unauthorized actors in a way that reveals (1) its internal state or decision process, or (2) differences from other products with equivalent functionality.

Extended description

Ideally, a product should provide as little information about its internal operations as possible. Otherwise, attackers could use knowledge of these internal operations to simplify or optimize their attack. In some cases, behavioral discrepancies can be used by attackers to form a side channel.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Architecture and Design

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Read Application DataBypass Protection Mechanism

Affected security scopes: Confidentiality, Access Control

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

  • Follow secure coding guidelines for input handling and boundary checking.
  • Enforce strict security reviews and automated static analysis (SAST) checks.