Operation on Resource in Wrong Phase of Lifetime

The product performs an operation on a resource at the wrong phase of the resource's lifecycle, which can lead to unexpected behaviors.

Abstraction

Class

Structure

Simple

Likelihood of Exploit

Medium

Understand the problem

What is the problem?

The product performs an operation on a resource at the wrong phase of the resource's lifecycle, which can lead to unexpected behaviors.

Extended description

A resource's lifecycle includes several phases: initialization, use, and release. For each phase, it is important to follow the specifications outlined for how to operate on the resource and to ensure that the resource is in the expected phase. Otherwise, if a resource is in one phase but the operation is not valid for that phase (i.e., an incorrect phase of the resource's lifetime), then this can produce resultant weaknesses. For example, using a resource before it has been fully initialized could cause corruption or incorrect data to be used.

Root cause

How and when does the problem arise?

Lifecycle phase

Implementation

Risk

What does successful exploitation lead to?

Other

Affected security scopes: Other

Defence

How is it prevented and fixed?

Architecture and Design

Architecture and design approach

Detail

Follow the resource's lifecycle from creation to release.

Verification

How is it detected?

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.)