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CWE-460 — Improper Cleanup on Thrown Exception

provenance: imported · CWE: CWE-460

CWE-460: Improper Cleanup on Thrown Exception

MITRE CWE weakness

Kind Weakness
Abstraction Base
Status Draft
Likelihood of exploit Medium

Description

The product does not clean up its state or incorrectly cleans up its state when an exception is thrown, leading to unexpected state or control flow.

Often, when functions or loops become complicated, some level of resource cleanup is needed throughout execution. Exceptions can disturb the flow of the code and prevent the necessary cleanup from happening.

Common consequences

  • Other: Varies by Context

Mitigations

Implementation — If one breaks from a loop or function by throwing an exception, make sure that cleanup happens or that you should exit the program. Use throwing exceptions sparsely.

References

  • CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/460.html
  • CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html