CWE-1474
Weakness Allowed-with-ReviewNon-Equivalent Data Transformation
Abstraction: Class · Status: Incomplete
The product parses or transforms data into another format, structure, or representation, but the newly-produced data is not semantically equivalent to the original data.
Mapping guidance
This CWE Entry is a Class and might have lower-level children that would be more appropriate
Examine children of this entry to see if there is a better fit
Modes of introduction
Detection methods
Manual Analysis
Examine inputs that will be saved or otherwise processed, then look at how they are produced in output. Analyze outputs that are expected to be (1) unchanged from the inputs, or (2) changed in a controlled way. Consider analyzing the data to extract key elements, such as e-mail addresses or domain names, to ensure that they are consistent with the original input.
Effectiveness: Moderate
These methods could have mixed results depending on how the product receives the data, transforms it, and outputs the data. It might require domain-specific knowledge of the product's intended behavior in order to determine if some transformations were correct. These methods could be time-consuming and not necessarily complete, but there might not be well-established and well-understood methods for some subtypes of this weakness.
Automated Dynamic Analysis
Examine inputs that will be saved or otherwise processed, then look at how they are produced in output. Analyze outputs that are expected to be (1) unchanged from the inputs, or (2) changed in a controlled way. Consider analyzing the data to extract key elements, such as e-mail addresses or domain names, to ensure that they are consistent with the original input.
Effectiveness: Moderate
These methods could have mixed results depending on how the product receives the data, transforms it, and outputs the data. It might require domain-specific knowledge of the product's intended behavior in order to determine if some transformations were correct. These methods could be time-consuming and not necessarily complete, but there might not be well-established and well-understood methods for some subtypes of this weakness.
Notes
Maintenance · CWE 5.0 · 2026-10-28
This entry was created in CWE 5.0 to address known gaps in CWE coverage. It is not as complete as other new entries that were published in recent years. The CWE Team plans to work with the CWE community to make this entry more complete in later 5.x releases.
Content history
Suggested inclusion of erroneous language translation of e-mail addresses, leading to a demonstrative example.
0 vulnerabilities reference this CWE, most recent first.
No vulnerabilities reference this CWE.
Mitigation
Validate the transformed data against what was expected to be produced. If the data is complex and free-form with some "special elements" in them, consider re-parsing the output to ensure that it matches expectations.
No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.