Read Time:4 Minute, 3 Second
Description
The program contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, and the code sequence requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence that is operating concurrently.
Modes of Introduction:
– Architecture and Design
Likelihood of Exploit: Medium
Related Weaknesses
CWE-691
Consequences
Availability: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
When a race condition makes it possible to bypass a resource cleanup routine or trigger multiple initialization routines, it may lead to resource exhaustion (CWE-400).
Availability: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Instability
When a race condition allows multiple control flows to access a resource simultaneously, it might lead the program(s) into unexpected states, possibly resulting in a crash.
Confidentiality, Integrity: Read Files or Directories, Read Application Data
When a race condition is combined with predictable resource names and loose permissions, it may be possible for an attacker to overwrite or access confidential data (CWE-59).
Potential Mitigations
Phase: Architecture and Design
Description:
In languages that support it, use synchronization primitives. Only wrap these around critical code to minimize the impact on performance.
Phase: Architecture and Design
Description:
Use thread-safe capabilities such as the data access abstraction in Spring.
Phase: Architecture and Design
Description:
Phase: Implementation
Description:
When using multithreading and operating on shared variables, only use thread-safe functions.
Phase: Implementation
Description:
Use atomic operations on shared variables. Be wary of innocent-looking constructs such as “x++”. This may appear atomic at the code layer, but it is actually non-atomic at the instruction layer, since it involves a read, followed by a computation, followed by a write.
Phase: Implementation
Description:
Use a mutex if available, but be sure to avoid related weaknesses such as CWE-412.
Phase: Implementation
Description:
Avoid double-checked locking (CWE-609) and other implementation errors that arise when trying to avoid the overhead of synchronization.
Phase: Implementation
Description:
Disable interrupts or signals over critical parts of the code, but also make sure that the code does not go into a large or infinite loop.
Phase: Implementation
Description:
Use the volatile type modifier for critical variables to avoid unexpected compiler optimization or reordering. This does not necessarily solve the synchronization problem, but it can help.
Phase: Architecture and Design, Operation
Description:
Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.
CVE References
- CVE-2019-18827
- chain: JTAG interface is not disabled (CWE-1191) during ROM code execution, introducing a race condition (CWE-362) to extract encryption keys
- CVE-2014-8273
- Chain: chipset has a race condition (CWE-362) between when an interrupt handler detects an attempt to write-enable the BIOS (in violation of the lock bit), and when the handler resets the write-enable bit back to 0, allowing attackers to issue BIOS writes during the timing window [REF-1237].
- CVE-2008-5044
- Race condition leading to a crash by calling a hook removal procedure while other activities are occurring at the same time.
- CVE-2008-2958
- chain: time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in program allows bypass of protection mechanism that was designed to prevent symlink attacks.
- CVE-2008-1570
- chain: time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in program allows bypass of protection mechanism that was designed to prevent symlink attacks.
- CVE-2008-0058
- Unsynchronized caching operation enables a race condition that causes messages to be sent to a deallocated object.
- CVE-2008-0379
- Race condition during initialization triggers a buffer overflow.
- CVE-2007-6599
- Daemon crash by quickly performing operations and undoing them, which eventually leads to an operation that does not acquire a lock.
- CVE-2007-6180
- chain: race condition triggers NULL pointer dereference
- CVE-2007-5794
- Race condition in library function could cause data to be sent to the wrong process.
- CVE-2007-3970
- Race condition in file parser leads to heap corruption.
- CVE-2008-5021
- chain: race condition allows attacker to access an object while it is still being initialized, causing software to access uninitialized memory.
- CVE-2009-4895
- chain: race condition for an argument value, possibly resulting in NULL dereference
- CVE-2009-3547
- chain: race condition might allow resource to be released before operating on it, leading to NULL dereference
- CVE-2006-5051
- Chain: Signal handler contains too much functionality (CWE-828), introducing a race condition (CWE-362) that leads to a double free (CWE-415).
