Improper Sanitization of Whitespace
Weakness ID: 156 (Weakness Variant)Status: Draft
+ Description

Description Summary

The software receives input from an upstream component, but it does not sanitize or incorrectly sanitizes special elements that could be interpreted as whitespace when they are sent to a downstream component.

Extended Description

This can include space, tab, etc.

+ Alternate Terms
White space
+ Time of Introduction
  • Implementation
+ Applicable Platforms

Languages

All

+ Observed Examples
ReferenceDescription
CVE-2002-0637MIE. virus protection bypass with RFC violations involving extra whitespace, or missing whitespace.
CVE-2004-0942CPU consumption with MIME headers containing lines with many space characters, probably due to algorithmic complexity (RESOURCE.AMP.ALG).
CVE-2003-1015MIE. whitespace interpreted differently by mail clients.
+ Potential Mitigations

Developers should anticipate that whitespace will be injected/removed/manipulated in the input vectors of their software system. Use an appropriate combination of black lists and white lists to ensure only valid, expected and appropriate input is processed by the system.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Assume all input is malicious. Use a standard input validation mechanism to validate all input for length, type, syntax, and business rules before accepting the data to be displayed or stored. Use an "accept known good" validation strategy.

Use and specify a strong output encoding (such as ISO 8859-1 or UTF 8).

Do not rely exclusively on blacklist validation to detect malicious input or to encode output. There are too many variants to encode a character; you're likely to miss some variants.

Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated. Make sure that your application does not decode the same input twice. Such errors could be used to bypass whitelist schemes by introducing dangerous inputs after they have been checked.

+ Relationships
NatureTypeIDNameView(s) this relationship pertains toView(s)
ChildOfWeakness ClassWeakness Class138Improper Sanitization of Special Elements
Development Concepts (primary)699
Research Concepts (primary)1000
+ Relationship Notes

Can overlap other separator characters or delimiters.

+ Taxonomy Mappings
Mapped Taxonomy NameNode IDFitMapped Node Name
PLOVERSPEC.WHITESPACEWhitespace
+ Content History
Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganizationSource
PLOVERExternally Mined
Modifications
Modification DateModifierOrganizationSource
2008-07-01Eric DalciCigitalExternal
updated Potential Mitigations, Time of Introduction
2008-09-08CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Description, Relationships, Relationship Notes, Taxonomy Mappings
2009-03-10CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Description, Name
2009-07-27CWE Content TeamMITREInternal
updated Potential Mitigations
Previous Entry Names
Change DatePrevious Entry Name
2008-01-30Whitespace
2008-04-11Failure to Remove Whitespace
2009-03-10Failure to Sanitize Whitespace