CWE-476
NULL Pointer Dereference
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Mitigation ID: MIT-56
Phase: Implementation
Description:
- For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished [REF-1484].
Mitigation
Phase: Requirements
Description:
- Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Mitigation
Phase: Implementation
Description:
- Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
Mitigation
Phase: Architecture and Design
Description:
- Identify all variables and data stores that receive information from external sources, and apply input validation to make sure that they are only initialized to expected values.
Mitigation
Phase: Implementation
Description:
- Explicitly initialize all variables and other data stores, either during declaration or just before the first usage.
No CAPEC attack patterns related to this CWE.