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Inappropriate coding practices - System exit

Description​

The J2EE application use System.exit(), it is undesirable for a web application to attempt to shut down the application container. Accessing a function that can shut down the application is an avenue for denial of service (DoS) attacks.

Impact​

  • Temporarily or permanently deny access to the application resource.

Recommendation​

Delegate shutdown functions only to privileged and duly authorized accesses.

Threat​

Authenticated attacker from the Internet.

Expected Remediation Time​

⌚ 15 minutes.

Score​

Default score using CVSS 3.1. It may change depending on the context of the vulnerability.

Base​

  • Attack vector: N
  • Attack complexity: H
  • Privileges required: L
  • User interaction: N
  • Scope: U
  • Confidentiality: N
  • Integrity: N
  • Availability: L

Temporal​

  • Exploit code madurity: U
  • Remediation level: U
  • Report confidence: R

Result​

  • Vector string: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L/E:U/RL:U/RC:R
  • Score:
    • Base: 3.1
    • Temporal: 2.8
  • Severity:
    • Base: Low
    • Temporal: Low

Code Examples​

Compliant code​

The application does not have any system.exit() in the source code

Public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
  try {
    ...
  } catch (ApplicationSpecificException ase) {
    logger.error("Caught: " + ase.toString());
  }
}

Non compliant code​

There are system.exit() in the code

Public void doPost(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
  try {
    ...
  } catch (ApplicationSpecificException ase) {
    logger.error("Caught: " + ase.toString());
    System.exit(1);
  }
}

Requirements​

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