Incomplete Cleanup

The product does not properly "clean up" and remove temporary or supporting resources after they have been used.

Abstraction

Base

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

The product does not properly "clean up" and remove temporary or supporting resources after they have been used.

Terminology

Alternate terms and usages

Insufficient Cleanup

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

OtherRead Application DataModify Application DataDoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

Affected security scopes: Other, Confidentiality, Integrity

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.

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

Architecture and Design · Implementation

Defence to apply across several lifecycle phases

Detail

Temporary files and other supporting resources should be deleted/released immediately after they are no longer needed.

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.)