CWE-637: Unnecessary Complexity in Protection Mechanism (Not Using 'Economy of Mechanism')
The product uses a more complex mechanism than necessary, which could lead to resultant weaknesses when the mechanism is not correctly understood, modeled, configured, implemented, or used.
How it's found
Unnecessary Complexity in Protection Mechanism (Not Using 'Economy of Mechanism') describes a general pattern rather than a single fixed bug. Testers use a mix of static analysis and manual code review to find where a target's code matches this pattern, then confirm exploitability by hand.
Security mechanisms should be as simple as possible. Complex security mechanisms may engender partial implementations and compatibility problems, with resulting mismatches in assumptions and implemented security. A corollary of this principle is that data specifications should be as simple as possible, because complex data specifications result in complex validation code. Complex tasks and systems may also need to be guarded by complex security checks, so simple systems should be preferred.
Consequences
- Other
Mitigations
- Architecture and Design: Avoid complex security mechanisms when simpler ones would meet requirements. Avoid complex data models, and unnecessarily complex operations. Adopt architectures that provide guarantees, simplify understanding through elegance and abstraction, and that can be implemented similarly. Modularize, isolate and do not trust complex code, and apply other secure programming principles on these modules (e.g., least privilege) to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Where this fits in a TurboPentest engagement
TurboPentest's agentic pentest is powerful and covers a broad range of issues automatically. This particular class is best confirmed in a manual IntegSec engagement, where human pentesters apply deeper methodology and a larger context window than any automated pass.
Frequently asked questions
What is CWE-637?
The product uses a more complex mechanism than necessary, which could lead to resultant weaknesses when the mechanism is not correctly understood, modeled, configured, implemented, or used.
How do you find Unnecessary Complexity in Protection Mechanism (Not Using 'Economy of Mechanism')?
Unnecessary Complexity in Protection Mechanism (Not Using 'Economy of Mechanism') describes a general pattern rather than a single fixed bug. Testers use a mix of static analysis and manual code review to find where a target's code matches this pattern, then confirm exploitability by hand.
What is the impact of CWE-637?
Other
Does TurboPentest test for Unnecessary Complexity in Protection Mechanism (Not Using 'Economy of Mechanism')?
TurboPentest's agentic pentest is powerful and covers a broad range of issues automatically. This particular class is best confirmed in a manual IntegSec engagement, where human pentesters apply deeper methodology and a larger context window than any automated pass.
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