CWE-187

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 Incomplete 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
Partial String Comparison

Description

The product performs a comparison that only examines a portion of a factor before determining whether there is a match, such as a substring, leading to resultant weaknesses.

For example, an attacker might succeed in authentication by providing a small password that matches the associated portion of the larger, correct password.

Top Monitored CVEs

CVE-2024-41110
CRITICAL
9.9 16.5%
2024-07-24

Consequences

Integrity, Access Control — Alter Execution Logic, Bypass Protection Mechanism

Mitigations

Phase: Testing

Thoroughly test the comparison scheme before deploying code into production. Perform positive testing as well as negative testing.