CWE-106

Variant Abstraction Level
Pillar — Highest-level weakness category
Class — Abstract, language-independent
Base — Specific enough to detect
Variant — Tied to specific technology
Compound — Requires multiple weaknesses
Draft MITRE CWE Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development, may change
Incomplete — Partially defined by MITRE
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CWE
Struts: Plug-in Framework not in Use

Description

When an application does not use an input validation framework such as the Struts Validator, there is a greater risk of introducing weaknesses related to insufficient input validation.

Unchecked input is the leading cause of vulnerabilities in J2EE applications. Unchecked input leads to cross-site scripting, process control, and SQL injection vulnerabilities, among others. Although J2EE applications are not generally susceptible to memory corruption attacks, if a J2EE application interfaces with native code that does not perform array bounds checking, an attacker may be able to use an input validation mistake in the J2EE application to launch a buffer overflow attack.

Consequences

Integrity — Unexpected State

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

Use an input validation framework such as Struts.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Use an input validation framework such as Struts.

Phase: Implementation

Use the Struts Validator to validate all program input before it is processed by the application. Ensure that there are no holes in the configuration of the Struts Validator. Example uses of the validator include checking to ensure that: Phone number fields contain only valid characters in phone numbers Boolean values are only "T" or "F" Free-form strings are of a reasonable length and composition

Phase: Implementation

Use the Struts Validator to validate all program input before it is processed by the application. Ensure that there are no holes in the configuration of the Struts Validator. Example uses of the validator include checking to ensure that: Phone number fields contain only valid characters in phone numbers Boolean values are only "T" or "F" Free-form strings are of a reasonable length and composition