CWE - CWE-344: Use of Invariant Value in Dynamically Changing Context (4.16)

Weakness ID: 344

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities
Abstraction: Base Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.

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Description

The product uses a constant value, name, or reference, but this value can (or should) vary across different environments.

Common Consequences

This table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Other	Technical Impact: Varies by Context

Relationships

This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (CWE-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	330	Use of Insufficiently Random Values
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	323	Reusing a Nonce, Key Pair in Encryption
ParentOf	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	587	Assignment of a Fixed Address to a Pointer
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	798	Use of Hard-coded Credentials

Relevant to the view "Software Development" (CWE-699)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1213	Random Number Issues

Modes Of Introduction

The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Architecture and Design
Implementation

Applicable Platforms

This listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Languages

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined Prevalence)

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

The following code is an example of an internal hard-coded password in the back-end:

(bad code)

Example Language: C

int VerifyAdmin(char *password) {

if (strcmp(password, "Mew!")) {

printf("Incorrect Password!\n");
return(0)

}
printf("Entering Diagnostic Mode...\n");
return(1);

}

(bad code)

Example Language: Java

int VerifyAdmin(String password) {

if (!password.equals("Mew!")) {

return(0)

}
//Diagnostic Mode
return(1);

}

Every instance of this program can be placed into diagnostic mode with the same password. Even worse is the fact that if this program is distributed as a binary-only distribution, it is very difficult to change that password or disable this "functionality."

Example 2

This code assumes a particular function will always be found at a particular address. It assigns a pointer to that address and calls the function.

(bad code)

Example Language: C

int (*pt2Function) (float, char, char)=0x08040000;
int result2 = (*pt2Function) (12, 'a', 'b');
// Here we can inject code to execute.

The same function may not always be found at the same memory address. This could lead to a crash, or an attacker may alter the memory at the expected address, leading to arbitrary code execution.

Observed Examples

Reference	Description
CVE-2002-0980	Component for web browser writes an error message to a known location, which can then be referenced by attackers to process HTML/script in a less restrictive context

Weakness Ordinalities

Ordinality	Description
Primary	(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)
Resultant	(where the weakness is typically related to the presence of some other weaknesses)

Memberships

This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	905	SFP Primary Cluster: Predictability
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1414	Comprehensive Categorization: Randomness

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage: ALLOWED

(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

Reason: Acceptable-Use

Rationale:

This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.

Comments:

Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

Notes

Relationship

overlaps default configuration.

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
PLOVER			Static Value in Unpredictable Context

References

[REF-267] Information Technology Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology. "SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR CRYPTOGRAPHIC MODULES". 2001-05-25. <https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/publications/fips/140/2/final/documents/fips1402.pdf>. URL validated: 2023-04-07.

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2006-07-19 (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)	PLOVER
2006-07-19 (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2008-07-01	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008-07-01	updated Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008-09-08	updated Relationships, Other_Notes, Relationship_Notes, Relevant_Properties, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
2009-03-10	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-03-10	updated Potential_Mitigations
2009-12-28	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-12-28	updated Potential_Mitigations
2010-02-16	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010-02-16	updated Relationships
2010-06-21	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010-06-21	updated Potential_Mitigations
2010-12-13	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010-12-13	updated Relationships
2011-06-01	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-01	updated Common_Consequences
2011-06-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-27	updated Common_Consequences
2011-09-13	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-09-13	updated Potential_Mitigations, References
2012-05-11	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-05-11	updated Relationships
2012-10-30	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-10-30	updated Potential_Mitigations
2014-06-23	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014-06-23	updated Other_Notes
2017-11-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-11-08	updated Applicable_Platforms, References, Relevant_Properties
2020-02-24	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020-02-24	updated Relationships
2023-04-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-04-27	updated References, Relationships
2023-06-29	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-06-29	updated Mapping_Notes
2024-02-29 (CWE 4.14, 2024-02-29)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2024-02-29 (CWE 4.14, 2024-02-29)	updated Demonstrative_Examples
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2008-04-11	Static Value in Unpredictable Context


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Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-344: Use of Invariant Value in Dynamically Changing Context

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