CWE-227 2 CVEs MITRE definition ↗

CWE-227: 7PK - API Abuse

Overview

CWE-227 (7PK - API Abuse) documents a weakness type used across vulnerability databases and security assessments. Use the sections below for definition, context, and mapped CVEs.

Security impact
Security impact: Depends on product and context; use CVE records, severity scores, and MITRE guidance to prioritize.

Description

This category represents one of the phyla in the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms vulnerability classification. It includes weaknesses that involve the software using an API in a manner contrary to its intended use. According to the authors of the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms, "An API is a contract between a caller and a callee. The most common forms of API misuse occurs when the caller does not honor its end of this contract. For example, if a program does not call chdir() after calling chroot(), it violates the contract that specifies how to change the active root directory in a secure fashion. Another good example of library abuse is expecting the callee to return trustworthy DNS information to the caller. In this case, the caller misuses the callee API by making certain assumptions about its behavior (that the return value can be used for authentication purposes). One can also violate the caller-callee contract from the other side. For example, if a coder subclasses SecureRandom and returns a non-random value, the contract is violated."

Related CVEs in this database

These CVEs are mapped to this weakness in this database and kept for traceability and search.

CVE Published Summary
CVE-2024-56442 2025-01-08 Vulnerability of native APIs not being implemented in the NFC service module Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may cause features to perform abnormally.
CVE-2023-41293 2023-09-25 Data security classification vulnerability in the DDMP module. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect confidentiality.

Previous names

  • API Abuse (2008-04-11)
  • Failure to Fulfill API Contract (aka 'API Abuse') (2009-05-27)
  • Failure to Fulfill API Contract ('API Abuse') (2011-03-29)
  • Improper Fulfillment of API Contract ('API Abuse') (2017-11-08)

Content submission

Name
7 Pernicious Kingdoms
Date
2006-07-19
Version
Draft 3

Content modifications

Date Name Version Importance Comment
2008-07-01 Eric Dalci 1.0 updated Time_of_Introduction
2008-09-08 CWE Content Team 1.0 updated Description, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2009-05-27 CWE Content Team 1.4 updated Name, Relationships
2010-02-16 CWE Content Team 1.8 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2010-12-13 CWE Content Team 1.11 updated Description
2011-03-29 CWE Content Team 1.12 updated Description, Name
2011-06-01 CWE Content Team 1.13 updated Common_Consequences
2011-06-27 CWE Content Team 2.0 updated Common_Consequences
2012-05-11 CWE Content Team 2.2 updated Relationships
2012-10-30 CWE Content Team 2.3 updated Observed_Examples, Potential_Mitigations
2013-07-17 CWE Content Team 2.5 updated Relationships
2014-07-30 CWE Content Team 2.8 updated Relationships
2017-01-19 CWE Content Team 2.10 updated Relationships
2017-05-03 CWE Content Team 2.11 updated Observed_Examples, Related_Attack_Patterns
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team 3.0 updated Alternate_Terms, Common_Consequences, Description, Name, Observed_Examples, Potential_Mitigations, References, Related_Attack_Patterns, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings, Time_of_Introduction, Type
2019-01-03 CWE Content Team 3.2 updated Relationships
2020-02-24 CWE Content Team 4.0 updated Description, References, Relationships
2023-04-27 CWE Content Team 4.11 updated Mapping_Notes
2023-06-29 CWE Content Team 4.12 updated Mapping_Notes
cvelogic Threat Intelligence