CWE-397: Declaration of Throws for Generic Exception
The product throws or raises an overly broad exceptions that can hide important details and produce inappropriate responses to certain conditions.
Last updated
Overview
Declaring a method to throw Exception or Throwable promotes generic error handling procedures that make it difficult for callers to perform proper error handling and error recovery. For example, Java's exception mechanism makes it easy for callers to anticipate what can go wrong and write code to handle each specific exceptional circumstance. Declaring that a method throws a generic form of exception defeats this system.
Common consequences
What can happen when CWE-397 is exploited.
Hide Activities, Alter Execution Logic
Affects: Non-Repudiation, Other
Throwing a generic exception can hide details about unexpected adversary activities by making it difficult to properly troubleshoot error conditions during execution.
How it happens
When it is introduced
Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.
Applies to
Languages