Weakness · Medium

CWE-1125: Excessive Attack Surface

What it is

The product has an attack surface whose quantitative measurement exceeds a desirable maximum.

MITRE CWE 4.19.1

Severity (our rating)
Medium
Likelihood of exploit
Not rated by MITRE
Introduced during
Architecture and Design, Implementation
Exploited in the wild
No CVE in CISA's catalog

In more detail

Originating from software security, an "attack surface" measure typically reflects the number of input points and output points that can be utilized by an untrusted party, i.e. a potential attacker. A larger attack surface provides more places to attack, and more opportunities for developers to introduce weaknesses. In some cases, this measure may reflect other aspects of quality besides security; e.g., a product with many inputs and outputs may require a large number of tests in order to improve code coverage.

What an attacker can do

  • Varies by Context (Other)

How to prevent it

MITRE lists no specific mitigation for this weakness. Treat it like its parent weaknesses below: validate input, keep the design simple and review the code where it could appear.

CWE-1125 on MITRE's CWE site

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Source: MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration, CWE version 4.19.1. CWE is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.