CWE-245: J2EE Bad Practices: Direct Management of Connections

How it's found

J2EE Bad Practices: Direct Management of Connections is a specific, narrowly defined instance of a broader pattern. Testers confirm it with targeted code review and a proof-of-concept input that exercises the exact code path this weakness describes.

The J2EE standard forbids the direct management of connections. It requires that applications use the container's resource management facilities to obtain connections to resources. Every major web application container provides pooled database connection management as part of its resource management framework. Duplicating this functionality in an application is difficult and error prone, which is part of the reason it is forbidden under the J2EE standard.

Vulnerable vs. safe

conn = DriverManager.getConnection(CONNECT_STRING);try {} catch (SQLException ex) {...}private static final String CONNECT_STRING = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mysqldb";private Connection conn = null;public DatabaseConnection() {}public void openDatabaseConnection() {}// Member functions for retrieving database connection and accessing database...public class DatabaseConnection {}

InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();DataSource datasource = (DataSource) ctx.lookup(DB_DATASRC_REF);conn = datasource.getConnection();
try {} catch (NamingException ex) {...}} catch (SQLException ex) {...}private static final String DB_DATASRC_REF = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mysqldb";private Connection conn = null;public DatabaseConnection() {}public void openDatabaseConnection() {}// Member functions for retrieving database connection and accessing database...public class DatabaseConnection {}

Consequences

• Quality Degradation

Where this fits in a TurboPentest engagement

This weakness is not covered by the automated black-box pentest. IntegSec pentesters cover it in a manual engagement.

Frequently asked questions

Related CWEs

• Base weakness
  CWE-695: Use of Low-Level Functionality