Improper Handling of Undefined Values

The product does not handle or incorrectly handles when a value is not defined or supported for the associated parameter, field, or argument name.


Demonstrations

The following examples help to illustrate the nature of this weakness and describe methods or techniques which can be used to mitigate the risk.

Note that the examples here are by no means exhaustive and any given weakness may have many subtle varieties, each of which may require different detection methods or runtime controls.

Example One

In this example, an address parameter is read and trimmed of whitespace.

String address = request.getParameter("address");
address = address.trim();
String updateString = "UPDATE shippingInfo SET address='?' WHERE email='cwe@example.com'";
emailAddress = con.prepareStatement(updateString);
emailAddress.setString(1, address);

If the value of the address parameter is null (undefined), the servlet will throw a NullPointerException when the trim() is attempted.

See Also

Comprehensive Categorization: Improper Neutralization

Weaknesses in this category are related to improper neutralization.

SFP Secondary Cluster: Incorrect Input Handling

This category identifies Software Fault Patterns (SFPs) within the Incorrect Input Handling cluster.

Comprehensive CWE Dictionary

This view (slice) covers all the elements in CWE.

Weaknesses Introduced During Implementation

This view (slice) lists weaknesses that can be introduced during implementation.


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