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CWE-369:Divide By Zero

Weakness ID:369

Version:v4.17

Weakness Name:Divide By Zero

Vulnerability Mapping:Allowed

Abstraction:Base

Structure:Simple

Status:Draft

Likelihood of Exploit:Medium

Details Content History Observed CVE Examples Reports

▼Description

The product divides a value by zero.

▼Extended Description

This weakness typically occurs when an unexpected value is provided to the product, or if an error occurs that is not properly detected. It frequently occurs in calculations involving physical dimensions such as size, length, width, and height.

▼Relationships

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

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
ChildOf	Discouraged	P	682	Incorrect Calculation

Nature: ChildOf

Mapping: Discouraged

Type: Pillar

ID: 682

Name: Incorrect Calculation

▼Memberships

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	189	Numeric Errors
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	730	OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A9 - Denial of Service
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	738	CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 5 - Integers (INT)
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	739	CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 6 - Floating Point (FLP)
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	848	The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) Chapter 5 - Numeric Types and Operations (NUM)
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	872	CERT C++ Secure Coding Section 04 - Integers (INT)
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	873	CERT C++ Secure Coding Section 05 - Floating Point Arithmetic (FLP)
MemberOf	Prohibited	V	884	CWE Cross-section
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	998	SFP Secondary Cluster: Glitch in Computation
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	1137	SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 03. Numeric Types and Operations (NUM)
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	1158	SEI CERT C Coding Standard - Guidelines 04. Integers (INT)
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	1408	Comprehensive Categorization: Incorrect Calculation

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 189

Name: Numeric Errors

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 730

Name: OWASP Top Ten 2004 Category A9 - Denial of Service

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 738

Name: CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 5 - Integers (INT)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 739

Name: CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 6 - Floating Point (FLP)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 848

Name: The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011) Chapter 5 - Numeric Types and Operations (NUM)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 872

Name: CERT C++ Secure Coding Section 04 - Integers (INT)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 873

Name: CERT C++ Secure Coding Section 05 - Floating Point Arithmetic (FLP)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:View

ID: 884

Name: CWE Cross-section

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 998

Name: SFP Secondary Cluster: Glitch in Computation

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 1137

Name: SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 03. Numeric Types and Operations (NUM)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 1158

Name: SEI CERT C Coding Standard - Guidelines 04. Integers (INT)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:Category

ID: 1408

Name: Comprehensive Categorization: Incorrect Calculation

▼Tags

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Prohibited	BS	BOSS-273	Medium likelihood of exploit
MemberOf	Prohibited	BS	BOSS-324	DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart (impact)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:BOSSView

ID: BOSS-273

Name: Medium likelihood of exploit

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type:BOSSView

ID: BOSS-324

Name: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart (impact)

▼Relevant To View

Relevant to the view"Weaknesses Addressed by the SEI CERT Oracle Coding Standard for Java - (1133)"

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	1137	SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 03. Numeric Types and Operations (NUM)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type: Category

ID: 1137

Name: SEI CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java - Guidelines 03. Numeric Types and Operations (NUM)

Relevant to the view"Weaknesses Addressed by the SEI CERT C Coding Standard - (1154)"

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	1158	SEI CERT C Coding Standard - Guidelines 04. Integers (INT)

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type: Category

ID: 1158

Name: SEI CERT C Coding Standard - Guidelines 04. Integers (INT)

Relevant to the view"Software Development - (699)"

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	189	Numeric Errors

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type: Category

ID: 189

Name: Numeric Errors

Relevant to the view"Software Fault Pattern (SFP) Clusters - (888)"

Nature	Mapping	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	Prohibited	C	998	SFP Secondary Cluster: Glitch in Computation

Nature: MemberOf

Mapping: Prohibited

Type: Category

ID: 998

Name: SFP Secondary Cluster: Glitch in Computation

▼Common Consequences

Scope	Likelihood	Impact	Note
Availability	N/A	DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart	A Divide by Zero results in a crash.

Scope: Availability

Likelihood: N/A

Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart

Note:

A Divide by Zero results in a crash.

▼Modes Of Introduction

Phase: Implementation

Note:

N/A

▼Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

The following Java example contains a function to compute an average but does not validate that the input value used as the denominator is not zero. This will create an exception for attempting to divide by zero. If this error is not handled by Java exception handling, unexpected results can occur.

Language: Java(Bad code)

public int computeAverageResponseTime (int totalTime, int numRequests) { return totalTime / numRequests; }

By validating the input value used as the denominator the following code will ensure that a divide by zero error will not cause unexpected results. The following Java code example will validate the input value, output an error message, and throw an exception.

Language: Java(Good code)

public int computeAverageResponseTime (int totalTime, int numRequests) throws ArithmeticException { if (numRequests == 0) { System.out.println("Division by zero attempted!"); throw ArithmeticException; } return totalTime / numRequests; }

Example 2

The following C/C++ example contains a function that divides two numeric values without verifying that the input value used as the denominator is not zero. This will create an error for attempting to divide by zero, if this error is not caught by the error handling capabilities of the language, unexpected results can occur.

Language: C(Bad code)

double divide(double x, double y){ return x/y; }

By validating the input value used as the denominator the following code will ensure that a divide by zero error will not cause unexpected results. If the method is called and a zero is passed as the second argument a DivideByZero error will be thrown and should be caught by the calling block with an output message indicating the error.

Language: C(Good code)

const int DivideByZero = 10; double divide(double x, double y){ if ( 0 == y ){ throw DivideByZero; } return x/y; } ... try{ divide(10, 0); } catch( int i ){ if(i==DivideByZero) { cerr<<"Divide by zero error"; } }

Example 3

The following C# example contains a function that divides two numeric values without verifying that the input value used as the denominator is not zero. This will create an error for attempting to divide by zero, if this error is not caught by the error handling capabilities of the language, unexpected results can occur.

Language: C#(Bad code)

int Division(int x, int y){ return (x / y); }

The method can be modified to raise, catch and handle the DivideByZeroException if the input value used as the denominator is zero.

Language: C#(Good code)

int SafeDivision(int x, int y){ try{ return (x / y); } catch (System.DivideByZeroException dbz){ System.Console.WriteLine("Division by zero attempted!"); return 0; } }

▼Observed Examples

Reference	Description
CVE-2007-3268	Invalid size value leads to divide by zero.
CVE-2007-2723	"Empty" content triggers divide by zero.
CVE-2007-2237	Height value of 0 triggers divide by zero.

Reference: CVE-2007-3268

Description:

Invalid size value leads to divide by zero.

Reference: CVE-2007-2723

Description:

"Empty" content triggers divide by zero.

Reference: CVE-2007-2237

Description:

Height value of 0 triggers divide by zero.

▼Detection Methods

Automated Static Analysis

Detection Method ID:DM-14

Description:

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

Fuzzing

Detection Method ID:DM-13

Description:

Fuzz testing (fuzzing) is a powerful technique for generating large numbers of diverse inputs - either randomly or algorithmically - and dynamically invoking the code with those inputs. Even with random inputs, it is often capable of generating unexpected results such as crashes, memory corruption, or resource consumption. Fuzzing effectively produces repeatable test cases that clearly indicate bugs, which helps developers to diagnose the issues.

Effectiveness:High

▼Vulnerability Mapping Notes

Usage:Allowed

Reason:Acceptable-Use

Rationale:

This CWE entry is at the Base 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

Taxonomy Name	Entry ID	Fit	Entry Name
OWASP Top Ten 2004	A9	CWE More Specific	Denial of Service
CERT C Secure Coding	FLP03-C	N/A	Detect and handle floating point errors
CERT C Secure Coding	INT33-C	Exact	Ensure that division and remainder operations do not result in divide-by-zero errors
The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011)	NUM02-J	N/A	Ensure that division and modulo operations do not result in divide-by-zero errors
Software Fault Patterns	SFP1	N/A	Glitch in computation

Taxonomy Name: OWASP Top Ten 2004

Entry ID: A9

Fit: CWE More Specific

Entry Name: Denial of Service

Taxonomy Name: CERT C Secure Coding

Entry ID: FLP03-C

Fit: N/A

Entry Name: Detect and handle floating point errors

Taxonomy Name: CERT C Secure Coding

Entry ID: INT33-C

Fit: Exact

Entry Name: Ensure that division and remainder operations do not result in divide-by-zero errors

Taxonomy Name: The CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (2011)

Entry ID: NUM02-J

Fit: N/A

Entry Name: Ensure that division and modulo operations do not result in divide-by-zero errors

Taxonomy Name: Software Fault Patterns

Entry ID: SFP1

Fit: N/A

Entry Name: Glitch in computation

▼References

Reference ID: REF-371

Title: Handling Errors Exceptionally Well in C++

Author: Alex Allain

Publication:

URL:https://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/exceptions.html

URL Date:2023-04-07

Day:N/A

Month:N/A

Year:N/A

Reference ID: REF-372

Title: Exceptions and Exception Handling (C# Programming Guide)

Author: Microsoft

Publication:

URL:https://msdn.microsoft.com/pl-pl/library/ms173160(v=vs.100).aspx

Day:N/A

Month:N/A

Year:N/A