CWE-416
Use After Free
About
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Common consequences
- Integrity → Modify Memory
- Availability → DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
- Confidentiality → Read Memory
- Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability → Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Mitigations
- Architecture and Design: Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
- Implementation: When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.
CVEs with this weakness
Frequently asked questions
What is CWE-416?
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
How likely is CWE-416 to be exploited?
MITRE rates the likelihood of exploit for CWE-416 as high.
Which platforms does CWE-416 affect?
CWE-416 has been observed on: Memory-Unsafe, C, C++.
How many CVEs does Rainforest track for CWE-416?
Rainforest Labs currently tracks 2 published CVEs mapped to CWE-416. They are listed on this page.
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