CWE-403 — Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere ('File Descriptor Leak')
CWE-403: Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere ('File Descriptor Leak')
MITRE CWE weakness
| Kind | Weakness |
| Abstraction | Base |
| Status | Draft |
| Likelihood of exploit | — |
Description
A process does not close sensitive file descriptors before invoking a child process, which allows the child to perform unauthorized I/O operations using those descriptors.
When a new process is forked or executed, the child process inherits any open file descriptors. When the child process has fewer privileges than the parent process, this might introduce a vulnerability if the child process can access the file descriptor but does not have the privileges to access the associated file.
Common consequences
- Confidentiality, Integrity: Read Application Data, Modify Application Data
Mitigations
(none listed)
References
- CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/403.html
- CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html