Weakness ID: 580
Vulnerability Mapping: ALLOWED This CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilitiesAbstraction: 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.
Description
The product contains a clone() method that does not call super.clone() to obtain the new object.
Extended Description
All implementations of clone() should obtain the new object by calling super.clone(). If a class does not follow this convention, a subclass's clone() method will return an object of the wrong type.
Common Consequences
This 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 |
|---|---|
|
Unexpected State; Quality Degradation |
Scope: Integrity, Other |
Potential Mitigations
| Phase(s) | Mitigation |
|---|---|
|
Implementation |
Call super.clone() within your clone() method, when obtaining a new object. |
|
Implementation |
In some cases, you can eliminate the clone method altogether and use copy constructors. |
Relationships
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 |
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.
|
573 | Improper Following of Specification by Caller |
| ChildOf |
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.
|
664 | Improper Control of a Resource Through its Lifetime |
Relevant to the view "Software Development" (View-699)
| Nature | Type | ID | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| MemberOf |
Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic.
|
265 | Privilege Issues |
Modes
Of Introduction
The 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 |
Applicable Platforms
This listing shows possible areas for which the given
weakness could appear. These
may be for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms,
Technologies,
or a class of such platforms. The platform is listed along with how frequently the given
weakness appears for that instance.
| Languages |
Java (Undetermined Prevalence) |
Demonstrative Examples
Example 1
The following two classes demonstrate a bug introduced by not calling super.clone(). Because of the way Kibitzer implements clone(), FancyKibitzer's clone method will return an object of type Kibitzer instead of FancyKibitzer.
(bad code)
Example Language: Java
public class Kibitzer {
public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
Object returnMe = new Kibitzer();
...
}
}
public class FancyKibitzer extends Kibitzer{
public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
Object returnMe = super.clone();
...
}
}
Weakness Ordinalities
| Ordinality | Description |
|---|---|
|
Primary |
(where the weakness exists independent of other weaknesses) |
Detection
Methods
| Method | Details |
|---|---|
|
Automated Static Analysis |
Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.) Effectiveness: High |
Memberships
This 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 | Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. |
1002 | SFP Secondary Cluster: Unexpected Entry Points |
| MemberOf | Category - a CWE entry that contains a set of other entries that share a common characteristic. |
1416 | Comprehensive Categorization: Resource Lifecycle Management |
Vulnerability Mapping Notes
| Usage |
ALLOWED
(this CWE ID may be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities) |
| Reason | Acceptable-Use |
|
Rationale |
This CWE entry is at the Variant level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities. |
|
Comments |
Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction. |
Taxonomy
Mappings
| Mapped Taxonomy Name | Node ID | Fit | Mapped Node Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Fault Patterns | SFP28 | Unexpected access points |
Content
History
| Submissions |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Submission Date | Submitter | Organization | |
|
2006-12-15
(CWE Draft 5, 2006-12-15) |
CWE Community | ||
| Submitted by members of the CWE community to extend early CWE versions | |||
 Modifications |
|||
| Modification Date | Modifier | Organization | |
|
2025-12-11
(CWE 4.19, 2025-12-11) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Weakness_Ordinalities | |||
|
2023-06-29
(CWE 4.12, 2023-06-29) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Mapping_Notes | |||
|
2023-04-27
(CWE 4.11, 2023-04-27) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Detection_Factors, Relationships | |||
|
2023-01-31
(CWE 4.10, 2023-01-31) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Description | |||
|
2020-02-24
(CWE 4.0, 2020-02-24) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Relationships | |||
|
2017-11-08
(CWE 3.0, 2017-11-08) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Relationships | |||
|
2014-07-30
(CWE 2.8, 2014-07-31) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings | |||
|
2012-05-11
(CWE 2.2, 2012-05-15) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Relationships | |||
|
2011-06-27
(CWE 2.0, 2011-06-27) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Common_Consequences | |||
|
2011-06-01
(CWE 1.13, 2011-06-01) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Common_Consequences | |||
|
2011-03-29
(CWE 1.12, 2011-03-30) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Demonstrative_Examples | |||
|
2010-12-13
(CWE 1.11, 2010-12-13) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Description | |||
|
2009-07-27
(CWE 1.5, 2009-07-27) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Description, Other_Notes, Potential_Mitigations | |||
|
2008-09-08
(CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09) |
CWE Content Team | MITRE | |
| updated Relationships, Other_Notes | |||
|
2008-07-01
(CWE 1.0, 2008-09-09) |
Eric Dalci | Cigital | |
| updated Potential_Mitigations, Time_of_Introduction | |||
| Previous Entry Names |
|||
| Change Date | Previous Entry Name | ||
| 2008-04-11 | Erroneous Clone Method | ||