CWE-56: Path Equivalence: 'filedir*' (Wildcard)
The product accepts path input in the form of asterisk wildcard ('filedir*') without appropriate validation, which can lead to ambiguous path resolution and allow an attacker to traverse the file system to unintended locations or access arbitrary files.
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Overview
CWE-56 (Path Equivalence: 'filedir*' (Wildcard)) is a variant-level software weakness catalogued by MITRE in the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). It describes a recurring type of mistake that can lead to exploitable security vulnerabilities.
Common consequences
What can happen when CWE-56 is exploited.
Read Files or Directories, Modify Files or Directories
Affects: Confidentiality, Integrity
How it happens
When it is introduced
Typically introduced during these phases of the software lifecycle.
How to prevent it
Practical mitigations for CWE-56, grouped by where in the lifecycle they apply.
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174). Such errors could be used to bypass allowlist validation schemes by introducing dangerous inputs after they have been checked.