CWE-77 refers to the improper neutralisation of special elements used in a command. These special elements, when inadequately sanitised, allow attackers to inject malicious commands that the system interprets and executes. This vulnerability commonly appears in applications that dynamically construct system commands based on user inputs.
Missing Authorisation, identified by CWE-862, refers to a software weakness where an application fails to verify if a user is permitted to access specific resources or perform certain actions. While authentication establishes identity, authorisation ensures that the authenticated user has the necessary permissions. When authorisation is missing, attackers can exploit this oversight to access sensitive data, perform unauthorised transactions, or disrupt services.
Out-of-bounds write vulnerabilities (CWE-787) are among the most dangerous weaknesses in software development. If left unchecked, these vulnerabilities can have significant repercussions, including data corruption, service outages, and, in the worst cases, remote code execution.
An out-of-bounds write occurs when a program writes data outside the bounds of allocated memory, causing code compromise in the software.
Broken Function Level Authorisation occurs when an attacker is able to access functions or data that they are not authorised to use. This happens due to inadequate enforcement of role-based access controls (RBAC) or a failure to properly segregate administrative and regular user functions. APIs often expose a variety of functions depending on the user’s role (e.g., regular user, administrator, manager, etc.). When these functions are not sufficiently protected or are poorly designed, attackers can bypass these restrictions to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information or perform malicious activities.
**JSON Injection** is a form of **injection vulnerability** that occurs when an application improperly handles user input within a JSON object. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is widely used for data exchange between web clients and servers. When applications fail to validate or sanitize user input before incorporating it into a JSON object, attackers can inject malicious data, manipulating the application’s behaviour.
JSON Injection primarily targets the integrity of the data being exchanged, potentially altering application logic, bypassing authentication, or even leading to more severe attacks like remote code execution. It is particularly dangerous in systems that use JSON for configuration files, user inputs, or data transfer, which is the case in many modern web applications.