Name: Improper Resource Locking

The product must have exclusive access to a resource, but it does not lock or does not correctly lock that resource.

General Informations

Modes Of Introduction

Architecture and Design
Implementation

Applicable Platforms

Language

Class: Not Language-Specific (Undetermined)

Common Consequences

Scope	Impact	Likelihood
Integrity Availability	Modify Application Data, DoS: Instability, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart Note: When a resource is not properly locked, an attacker could modify the resource while it is being operated on by the product. This might violate the product's assumption that the resource will not change, potentially leading to unexpected behaviors.

Observed Examples

References	Description
CVE-2022-20141	Chain: an operating system kernel has insufficient resource locking (CWE-413) leading to a use after free (CWE-416).

Potential Mitigations

Phases : Architecture and Design
Use a non-conflicting privilege scheme.
Phases : Architecture and Design // Implementation
Use synchronization when locking a resource.

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.

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 Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2008-09-08 +00:00	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2010-06-21 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2010-09-27 +00:00	updated Description, Name
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2010-12-13 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2011-06-01 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-05-11 +00:00	updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2012-10-30 +00:00	updated Potential_Mitigations
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2014-07-30 +00:00	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2017-11-08 +00:00	updated Applicable_Platforms
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2019-01-03 +00:00	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
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	2023-01-31 +00:00	updated Description
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 Content Team	MITRE	2023-10-26 +00:00	updated Observed_Examples
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2025-12-11 +00:00	updated Weakness_Ordinalities
CWE Content Team	MITRE	2026-10-28 +00:00	updated Common_Consequences, Description, Observed_Examples

CWE-413 Detail

CWE-413