DEPRECATED: Often Misused: Path Manipulation
Weakness ID: 249 (Deprecated Weakness Variant)Status: Deprecated
+ Description

Description Summary

This entry has been deprecated because of name confusion and an accidental combination of multiple weaknesses. Most of its content has been transferred to CWE-785.
+ Maintenance Notes

This entry was deprecated for several reasons. The primary reason is over-loading of the "path manipulation" term and the description. The original description for this entry was the same as that for the "Often Misused: File System" item in the original Seven Pernicious Kingdoms paper. However, Seven Pernicious Kingdoms also has a "Path Manipulation" phrase that is for external control of pathnames (CWE-73), which is a factor in symbolic link following and path traversal, neither of which is explicitly mentioned in 7PK. Fortify uses the phrase "Often Misused: Path Manipulation" for a broader range of problems, generally for issues related to buffer management. Given the multiple conflicting uses of this term, there is a chance that CWE users may have incorrectly mapped to this entry.

The second reason for deprecation is an implied combination of multiple weaknesses within buffer-handling functions. The focus of this entry has generally been on the path-conversion functions and their association with buffer overflows. However, some of Fortify's Vulncat entries have the term "path manipulation" but describe a non-overflow weakness in which the buffer is not guaranteed to contain the entire pathname, i.e., there is information truncation (see CWE-222 for a similar concept). A new entry for this non-overflow weakness may be created in a future version of CWE.

+ Content History
Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganizationSource
7 Pernicious KingdomsExternally Mined
Modifications
Modification DateModifierOrganizationSource
2008-07-01Eric DalciCigitalExternal
updated Time of Introduction
2008-08-01KDM AnalyticsExternal
added/updated white box definitions
2008-09-08CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Applicable Platforms, Relationships, Other Notes, Taxonomy Mappings
2009-05-27CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Demonstrative Examples
2009-07-17
(Critical)
KDM AnalyticsExternal
Described inconsistencies in this entry, which the CWE Content Team had already slated for deprecation.
2009-07-27CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Affected Resources, Applicable Platforms, Demonstrative Examples, Description, Maintenance Notes, Name, Other Notes, Potential Mitigations, Relationships, Taxonomy Mappings, Time of Introduction, Type, White Box Definitions
2009-10-29CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Relationships
Previous Entry Names
Change DatePrevious Entry Name
2009-07-27Often Misused: Path Manipulation