CWE - CWE-573: Improper Following of Specification by Caller (4.18)

Home > CWE List > CWE-573: Improper Following of Specification by Caller (4.18)

CWE Glossary Definition

CWE-573: Improper Following of Specification by Caller

Weakness ID: 573

Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review (with careful review of mapping notes)
Abstraction: Class 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.

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Description

The product does not follow or incorrectly follows the specifications as required by the implementation language, environment, framework, protocol, or platform.

Extended Description

When leveraging external functionality, such as an API, it is important that the caller does so in accordance with the requirements of the external functionality or else unintended behaviors may result, possibly leaving the system vulnerable to any number of exploits.

Common Consequences

Section HelpThis table specifies different individual consequences associated with the weakness. The Scope identifies the application security area that is violated, while the Impact describes the negative technical impact that arises if an adversary succeeds in exploiting this weakness. The Likelihood provides information about how likely the specific consequence is expected to be seen relative to the other consequences in the list. For example, there may be high likelihood that a weakness will be exploited to achieve a certain impact, but a low likelihood that it will be exploited to achieve a different impact.

Impact	Details
Quality Degradation; Varies by Context	Scope: Other

Relationships

Section Help This table shows the weaknesses and high level categories that are related to this weakness. These relationships are defined as ChildOf, ParentOf, MemberOf and give insight to similar items that may exist at higher and lower levels of abstraction. In addition, relationships such as PeerOf and CanAlsoBe are defined to show similar weaknesses that the user may want to explore.

Relevant to the view "Research Concepts" (View-1000)

Nature	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Pillar Pillar - a weakness that is the most abstract type of weakness and represents a theme for all class/base/variant weaknesses related to it. A Pillar is different from a Category as a Pillar is still technically a type of weakness that describes a mistake, while a Category represents a common characteristic used to group related things.	710	Improper Adherence to Coding Standards
ParentOf	Variant 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.	103	Struts: Incomplete validate() Method Definition
ParentOf	Variant 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.	104	Struts: Form Bean Does Not Extend Validation Class
ParentOf	Variant 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.	243	Creation of chroot Jail Without Changing Working Directory
ParentOf	Base 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.	253	Incorrect Check of Function Return Value
ParentOf	Base 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.	296	Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust
ParentOf	Base 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.	304	Missing Critical Step in Authentication
ParentOf	Base 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.	325	Missing Cryptographic Step
ParentOf	Variant 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.	329	Generation of Predictable IV with CBC Mode
ParentOf	Base 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.	358	Improperly Implemented Security Check for Standard
ParentOf	Base 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
ParentOf	Variant 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.	568	finalize() Method Without super.finalize()
ParentOf	Variant 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.	577	EJB Bad Practices: Use of Sockets
ParentOf	Variant 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.	578	EJB Bad Practices: Use of Class Loader
ParentOf	Variant 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.	579	J2EE Bad Practices: Non-serializable Object Stored in Session
ParentOf	Variant 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.	580	clone() Method Without super.clone()
ParentOf	Variant 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.	581	Object Model Violation: Just One of Equals and Hashcode Defined
ParentOf	Base 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.	628	Function Call with Incorrectly Specified Arguments
ParentOf	Class 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.	675	Multiple Operations on Resource in Single-Operation Context
ParentOf	Base 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.	694	Use of Multiple Resources with Duplicate Identifier
ParentOf	Base 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.	695	Use of Low-Level Functionality

Modes Of Introduction

Section HelpThe different Modes of Introduction provide information about how and when this weakness may be introduced. The Phase identifies a point in the life cycle at which introduction may occur, while the Note provides a typical scenario related to introduction during the given phase.

Phase	Note
Implementation

Selected Observed Examples

Note: this is a curated list of examples for users to understand the variety of ways in which this weakness can be introduced. It is not a complete list of all CVEs that are related to this CWE entry.

Reference	Description
CVE-2006-7140	Crypto implementation removes padding when it shouldn't, allowing forged signatures
CVE-2006-4339	Crypto implementation removes padding when it shouldn't, allowing forged signatures

Weakness Ordinalities

Ordinality	Description
Primary	(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses)

Memberships

Section HelpThis MemberOf Relationships table shows additional CWE Categories and Views that reference this weakness as a member. This information is often useful in understanding where a weakness fits within the context of external information sources.

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	850	The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) Chapter 7 - Methods (MET)
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1001	SFP Secondary Cluster: Use of an Improper API
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1140	SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 06. Methods (MET)
MemberOf	CategoryCategory - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.	1412	Comprehensive Categorization: Poor Coding Practices

Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage ALLOWED-WITH-REVIEW

(this CWE ID could be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities in limited situations requiring careful review)

Reason Abstraction

Rationale

This CWE entry is a Class and might have Base-level children that would be more appropriate

Comments

Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit

Taxonomy Mappings

Mapped Taxonomy Name	Node ID	Fit	Mapped Node Name
The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011)	MET10-J	Follow the general contract when implementing the compareTo() method

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2006年12月15日 (CWE Draft 5, 2006年12月15日)	CWE Community
2006年12月15日 (CWE Draft 5, 2006年12月15日)	Submitted by members of the CWE community to extend early CWE versions
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2023年06月29日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年06月29日	updated Mapping_Notes
2023年04月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年04月27日	updated Relationships
2023年01月31日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023年01月31日	updated Description
2020年02月24日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2020年02月24日	updated Relationships
2019年01月03日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2019年01月03日	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Weakness_Ordinalities
2017年11月08日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017年11月08日	updated Observed_Examples, Relationships
2017年01月19日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017年01月19日	updated Relationships
2014年07月30日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2014年07月30日	updated Relationships
2012年05月11日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2012年05月11日	updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2011年06月27日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011年06月27日	updated Common_Consequences
2011年06月01日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011年06月01日	updated Common_Consequences, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2011年03月29日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011年03月29日	updated Description, Name
2008年09月08日	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008年09月08日	updated Description, Relationships
2008年07月01日	Eric Dalci	Cigital
2008年07月01日	updated Time_of_Introduction
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2011年03月29日	Failure to Follow Specification

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Page Last Updated: September 09, 2025

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