CWE-191 Software Weakness Details

CWE-191

Name

Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound)

Status

Draft

Published

2006-07-19
00h00 +00:00

Modified

2023-06-29
00h00 +00:00

Official links

CWE Mitre.org

Notifications for a CWE

Stay informed of any changes for a specific CWE.

Notifications manage

List of Notifications

Notifications for a CWE

Stay informed of any changes for a specific CWE.

Parameters

You can specify a title that will be retrieved in the alerts that will be sent out.

Specify the CWE ID you wish to monitor.

Planning

Month

Next run calculation

Day

Weekday

Hour

Minute

Creation date

Last execution

Next execution

Functionality requiring a connection

This feature, which allows you to receive alerts, is only active when you are logged into your account.

Name: Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound)

The product subtracts one value from another, such that the result is less than the minimum allowable integer value, which produces a value that is not equal to the correct result.

CWE Description

This can happen in signed and unsigned cases.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Implementation

Applicable Platforms

Language

Name: C (Undetermined)
Name: C++ (Undetermined)
Name: Java (Undetermined)
Name: C# (Undetermined)

Common Consequences

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Availability	DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Instability Note: This weakness will generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. In the case of overflows involving loop index variables, the likelihood of infinite loops is also high.
Integrity	Modify Memory Note: If the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the wrap around results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.
Confidentiality Availability Access Control	Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism Note: This weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of a program's implicit security policy.

Observed Examples

References	Description
CVE-2004-0816	Integer underflow in firewall via malformed packet.
CVE-2004-1002	Integer underflow by packet with invalid length.
CVE-2005-0199	Long input causes incorrect length calculation.
CVE-2005-1891	Malformed icon causes integer underflow in loop counter variable.

Detection Methods

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.)
Effectiveness : High

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : 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.
Comment : 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.

References

REF-44

24 Deadly Sins of Software Security
Michael Howard, David LeBlanc, John Viega.

Submission

Name	Organization	Date	Date release	Version
PLOVER		2006-07-19 +00:00	2006-07-19 +00:00	Draft 3

Modifications

Name	Organization	Date	Comment
Eric Dalci	Cigital	2008-07-01 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Example
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2008-09-08 +00:00	updated Alternate_Terms, Applicable_Platforms, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2008-10-14 +00:00	updated Description
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2009-05-27 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2011-06-01 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2011-06-27 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-05-11 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences, References, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2014-07-30 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2015-12-07 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2017-11-08 +00:00	updated Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2019-01-03 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2020-02-24 +00:00	updated Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2021-03-15 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2022-04-28 +00:00	updated Research_Gaps
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-04-27 +00:00	updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2023-06-29 +00:00	updated Mapping_Notes

CWE-191 Detail