Weakness · Medium

CWE-436: Interpretation Conflict

What it is

Product A handles inputs or steps differently than Product B, which causes A to perform incorrect actions based on its perception of B's state.

2 exploited in the wildMITRE 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
2 known exploited CVEs

In more detail

This is generally found in proxies, firewalls, anti-virus software, and other intermediary devices that monitor, allow, deny, or modify traffic based on how the client or server is expected to behave.

What an attacker can do

  • Unexpected State (Integrity, Other)
  • Varies by Context (Integrity, 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-436 on MITRE's CWE site

Exploited in the wild: 2 CVEs

Vulnerabilities caused by CWE-436 that attackers have used, from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, newest first.

All known exploited vulnerabilities

H2 Security

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