CWE-403 5 CVEs MITRE definition ↗

CWE-403: Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere ('File Descriptor Leak')

Overview

CWE-403 (Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere ('File Descriptor Leak')) 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

A process does not close sensitive file descriptors before invoking a child process, which allows the child to perform unauthorized I/O operations using those descriptors.

Applicable platforms

Kind Name Class Prevalence OS / CPE
language C Undetermined
language Not Language-Specific Undetermined
operating_system Unix Undetermined

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-2026-40042 2026-04-13 Pachno 1.0.6 contains an XML external entity injection vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files by exploiting unsafe XML parsing in the TextParser helper. Attackers …
CVE-2025-15114 2025-12-30 Ksenia Security lares (legacy model) Home Automation version 1.6 contains a critical security flaw that exposes the alarm system PIN in the 'basisInfo' XML file after authentication. Attackers can ret…
CVE-2024-58280 2025-12-10 CMSimple 5.15 contains a remote command execution vulnerability that allows authenticated attackers to modify file extensions and upload malicious PHP files. Attackers can append ',php' to Extensions_…
CVE-2025-3032 2025-04-01 Leaking of file descriptors from the fork server to web content processes could allow for privilege escalation attacks. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 137 and Thunderbird 137.
CVE-2024-21626 2024-01-31 runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI specification. In runc 1.1.11 and earlier, due to an internal file descriptor leak, an attacker could cause a newly…

Previous names

  • UNIX File Descriptor Leak (2011-03-29)
  • Exposure of File Descriptor to Unintended Control Sphere (2013-02-21)

Content submission

Name
PLOVER
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 Applicable_Platforms, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2008-11-24 CWE Content Team 1.1 updated Affected_Resources, Observed_Examples, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2011-03-29 CWE Content Team 1.12 updated Name
2011-06-01 CWE Content Team 1.13 updated Common_Consequences
2011-06-27 CWE Content Team 2.0 updated Common_Consequences
2011-09-13 CWE Content Team 2.1 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2012-05-11 CWE Content Team 2.2 updated Relationships
2013-02-21 CWE Content Team 2.4 updated Alternate_Terms, Description, Name, Observed_Examples, References
2014-07-30 CWE Content Team 2.8 updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2017-11-08 CWE Content Team 3.0 updated Affected_Resources, Applicable_Platforms, Modes_of_Introduction, References, Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings
2020-02-24 CWE Content Team 4.0 updated Relationships
2023-04-27 CWE Content Team 4.11 updated References, Relationships, Time_of_Introduction
2023-06-29 CWE Content Team 4.12 updated Mapping_Notes
2025-04-03 CWE Content Team 4.17 updated Applicable_Platforms
2025-09-09 CWE Content Team 4.18 updated Functional_Areas
2025-12-11 CWE Content Team 4.19 updated Detection_Factors, Weakness_Ordinalities
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