CWE-346

Class 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
Origin Validation Error

Description

The product does not properly verify that the source of data or communication is valid.

Top Monitored CVEs

CVE-2025-34291
HIGH KEV
8.8 78.9%
2025-12-05
CVE-2020-16952
HIGH
8.6 70.9%
2020-10-16
CVE-2023-40547
HIGH
8.3 4.9%
2024-01-25

Consequences

Access Control, Other — Gain Privileges or Assume Identity, Varies by Context

An attacker can access any functionality that is inadvertently accessible to the source.

Detection

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.)