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Description

The product subtracts one value from another, such that the result is less than the minimum allowable integer value, which produces a value that is not equal to the correct result.

This can happen in signed and unsigned cases.

Modes of Introduction:

– Implementation

 

 

Related Weaknesses

CWE-682
CWE-682

 

Consequences

Availability: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory), DoS: Instability

This weakness will generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. In the case of overflows involving loop index variables, the likelihood of infinite loops is also high.

Integrity: Modify Memory

If the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the wrap around results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.

Confidentiality, Availability, Access Control: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism

This weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of a program’s implicit security policy.

 

Potential Mitigations

CVE References

  • CVE-2004-0816
    • Integer underflow in firewall via malformed packet.
  • CVE-2005-1891
    • Malformed icon causes integer underflow in loop counter variable.