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CWE-456

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CWE-456

Missing Initialization of a Variable

Variant
Draft

Description

The product does not initialize critical variables, which causes the execution environment to use unexpected values.

Common Consequences

Scope

Integrity
Other

Impact

Unexpected State, Quality Degradation, Varies by Context

Potential Mitigations

Implementation

Ensure that critical variables are initialized before first use [REF-1485].

Requirements

Choose a language that is not susceptible to these issues.

CVE-2020-6078

Chain: The return value of a function returning a pointer is not checked for success (CWE-252) resulting in the later use of an uninitialized variable (CWE-456) and a null pointer dereference (CWE-476)

CVE-2019-3836

Chain: secure communications library does not initialize a local variable for a data structure (CWE-456), leading to access of an uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).

CVE-2018-14641

Chain: C union member is not initialized (CWE-456), leading to access of invalid pointer (CWE-824)

CVE-2009-2692

Chain: Use of an unimplemented network socket operation pointing to an uninitialized handler function (CWE-456) causes a crash because of a null pointer dereference (CWE-476)

CVE-2020-20739

A variable that has its value set in a conditional statement is sometimes used when the conditional fails, sometimes causing data leakage

CVE-2005-2978

Product uses uninitialized variables for size and index, leading to resultant buffer overflow.

CVE-2005-2109

Internal variable in PHP application is not initialized, allowing external modification.

CVE-2005-2193

Array variable not initialized in PHP application, leading to resultant SQL injection.

Applicable Platforms

Not Language-Specific

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