Incomplete Model of Endpoint Features
A product acts as an intermediary or monitor between two or more endpoints, but it does not have a complete model of an endpoint's features, behaviors, or state, potentially causing the product to perform incorrect actions based on this incomplete model.
Demonstrations
The following examples help to illustrate the nature of this weakness and describe methods or techniques which can be used to mitigate the risk.
Note that the examples here are by no means exhaustive and any given weakness may have many subtle varieties, each of which may require different detection methods or runtime controls.
Example One
HTTP request smuggling is an attack against an intermediary such as a proxy. This attack works because the proxy expects the client to parse HTTP headers one way, but the client parses them differently.
Example Two
Anti-virus products that reside on mail servers can suffer from this issue if they do not know how a mail client will handle a particular attachment. The product might treat an attachment type as safe, not knowing that the client's configuration treats it as executable.
See Also
Weaknesses in this category are related to component interaction.
This category identifies Software Fault Patterns (SFPs) within the Protocol Error cluster.
Weaknesses in this category are related to unexpected behaviors from code that an application uses.
This view (slice) covers all the elements in CWE.
This view (slice) lists weaknesses that can be introduced during implementation.
This view (slice) lists weaknesses that can be introduced during design.
Common Weakness Enumeration content on this website is copyright of The MITRE Corporation unless otherwise specified. Use of the Common Weakness Enumeration and the associated references on this website are subject to the Terms of Use as specified by The MITRE Corporation.