CWE-834 Detail

CWE-834

Excessive Iteration
Incomplete
2011-03-30
00h00 +00:00
2024-02-29
00h00 +00:00
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Name: Excessive Iteration

The product performs an iteration or loop without sufficiently limiting the number of times that the loop is executed.

CWE Description

If the iteration can be influenced by an attacker, this weakness could allow attackers to consume excessive resources such as CPU or memory. In many cases, a loop does not need to be infinite in order to cause enough resource consumption to adversely affect the product or its host system; it depends on the amount of resources consumed per iteration.

General Informations

Common Consequences

Scope Impact Likelihood
AvailabilityDoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Amplification, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Note: Excessive looping will cause unexpected consumption of resources, such as CPU cycles or memory. The product's operation may slow down, or cause a long time to respond. If limited resources such as memory are consumed for each iteration, the loop may eventually cause a crash or program exit due to exhaustion of resources, such as an out-of-memory error.

Observed Examples

References Description

CVE-2011-1027

Chain: off-by-one error (CWE-193) leads to infinite loop (CWE-835) using invalid hex-encoded characters.

CVE-2006-6499

Chain: web browser crashes due to infinite loop - "bad looping logic [that relies on] floating point math [CWE-1339] to exit the loop [CWE-835]"

Detection Methods

Dynamic Analysis with Manual Results Interpretation

According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful:

Cost effective for partial coverage:
  • Fuzz Tester
  • Framework-based Fuzzer
  • Forced Path Execution

Effectiveness : SOAR Partial

Manual Static Analysis - Source Code

According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful:

Cost effective for partial coverage:
  • Focused Manual Spotcheck - Focused manual analysis of source
  • Manual Source Code Review (not inspections)

Effectiveness : SOAR Partial

Automated Static Analysis - Source Code

According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful:

Highly cost effective:
  • Context-configured Source Code Weakness Analyzer

Effectiveness : High

Architecture or Design Review

According to SOAR, the following detection techniques may be useful:

Highly cost effective:
  • Inspection (IEEE 1028 standard) (can apply to requirements, design, source code, etc.)

Effectiveness : High

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Justification : This CWE entry is a level-1 Class (i.e., a child of a Pillar). It might have lower-level children that would be more appropriate
Comment : Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit

References

REF-62

The Art of Software Security Assessment
Mark Dowd, John McDonald, Justin Schuh.

Submission

Name Organization Date Date release Version
CWE Content Team MITRE 2011-03-22 +00:00 2011-03-30 +00:00 1.12

Modifications

Name Organization Date Comment
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 References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
CWE Content Team MITRE 2014-07-30 +00:00 updated Detection_Factors
CWE Content Team MITRE 2017-11-08 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2019-06-20 +00:00 updated Relationships, Type
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-02-24 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2020-12-10 +00:00 updated Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2021-07-20 +00:00 updated Observed_Examples, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-01-31 +00:00 updated Common_Consequences, Description, Relationships
CWE Content Team MITRE 2023-04-27 +00:00 updated 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 2024-02-29 +00:00 updated Demonstrative_Examples, Mapping_Notes