CWE-690 — Unchecked Return Value to NULL Pointer Dereference
CWE-690: Unchecked Return Value to NULL Pointer Dereference
MITRE CWE weakness
| Kind | Weakness |
| Abstraction | Compound |
| Status | Draft |
| Likelihood of exploit | — |
Description
The product does not check for an error after calling a function that can return with a NULL pointer if the function fails, which leads to a resultant NULL pointer dereference.
While unchecked return value weaknesses are not limited to returns of NULL pointers (see the examples in CWE-252), functions often return NULL to indicate an error status. When this error condition is not checked, a NULL pointer dereference can occur.
Common consequences
- Availability: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
- Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Read Memory, Modify Memory
Mitigations
(none listed)
References
- CWE page: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/690.html
- CWE list: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/index.html