CWE - CWE-398: 7PK - Code Quality (4.15)

Category ID: 398

Vulnerability Mapping: PROHIBITEDThis CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities

Summary

This category represents one of the phyla in the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms vulnerability classification. It includes weaknesses that do not directly introduce a weakness or vulnerability, but indicate that the product has not been carefully developed or maintained. According to the authors of the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms, "Poor code quality leads to unpredictable behavior. From a user's perspective that often manifests itself as poor usability. For an adversary it provides an opportunity to stress the system in unexpected ways."

Membership

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).	700	Seven Pernicious Kingdoms
MemberOf	Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	978	SFP Secondary Cluster: Implementation
HasMember	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.	401	Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
HasMember	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.	404	Improper Resource Shutdown or Release
HasMember	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.	415	Double Free
HasMember	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.	416	Use After Free
HasMember	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.	457	Use of Uninitialized Variable
HasMember	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.	474	Use of Function with Inconsistent Implementations
HasMember	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.	475	Undefined Behavior for Input to API
HasMember	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.	476	NULL Pointer Dereference
HasMember	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.	477	Use of Obsolete Function

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage: PROHIBITED

(this CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities)

Reason: Category

Rationale:

This entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been discouraged since 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that can help CWE users with data aggregation, navigation, and browsing. However, they are not weaknesses in themselves.

Comments:

See member weaknesses of this category.

References

[REF-6] Katrina Tsipenyuk, Brian Chess and Gary McGraw. "Seven Pernicious Kingdoms: A Taxonomy of Software Security Errors". NIST Workshop on Software Security Assurance Tools Techniques and Metrics. NIST. 2005-11-07. <https://samate.nist.gov/SSATTM_Content/papers/Seven%20Pernicious%20Kingdoms%20-%20Taxonomy%20of%20Sw%20Security%20Errors%20-%20Tsipenyuk%20-%20Chess%20-%20McGraw.pdf>.

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2006-07-19 (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)	7 Pernicious Kingdoms
2006-07-19 (CWE Draft 3, 2006-07-19)
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2008-07-01	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008-07-01	updated Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008-09-08	updated Description, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2009-10-29	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2009-10-29	updated Relationships
2010-12-13	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2010-12-13	updated Relationships
2011-06-01	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-01	updated Common_Consequences
2011-06-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-06-27	updated Common_Consequences
2012-05-11	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012-05-11	updated Relationships
2014-07-30	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014-07-30	updated Detection_Factors, Relationships
2015-12-07	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2015-12-07	updated Relationships
2017-01-19	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-01-19	updated Relationships
2017-05-03	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-05-03	updated Relationships
2017-11-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-11-08	updated Common_Consequences, Description, Detection_Factors, Name, References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Time_of_Introduction, Type
2019-06-20	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2019-06-20	updated Relationships
2020-02-24	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020-02-24	updated References
2023-04-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-04-27	updated Mapping_Notes
2023-06-29	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-06-29	updated Mapping_Notes
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2008-04-11	Code Quality

2017-11-08	Indicator of Poor Code Quality


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