COMMON WEAKNESS ENUMERATIONIncomplete

CWE-253

Incorrect Check of Function Return Value

The product incorrectly checks a return value from a function, which prevents it from detecting errors or exceptional conditions.

Abstraction

Base

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Low

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

The product incorrectly checks a return value from a function, which prevents it from detecting errors or exceptional conditions.

Extended description

Important and common functions will return some value about the success of its actions. This will alert the program whether or not to handle any errors caused by that function.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Unexpected StateDoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Affected security scopes: Availability, Integrity

An unexpected return value could place the system in a state that could lead to a crash or other unintended behaviors.

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

Architecture and Design

Language Selection

Detail
Use a language or compiler that uses exceptions and requires the catching of those exceptions.

Implementation

Implementation-phase defence

Detail
Properly check all functions which return a value.

Implementation

Implementation-phase defence

Detail
When designing any function make sure you return a value or throw an exception in case of an error.

Verification

How is it detected?

Automated Static Analysis

High
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.)